European Commission to Review Bulgaria's Proposal to Amend Recovery Plan Projects

The European Commission has announced that Bulgaria has requested a revision of its national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). The Commission stated that it will review the request and submit it for evaluation by the Council of the EU.

On April 16, Bulgaria submitted a request to revise the plan, including the introduction of three new reforms and four new investments, according to the announcement. The proposed changes concern the management of energy poverty and preparations for the liberalization of the retail market, improving the transparency of procedures for connecting new renewable capacities and storage, enhancing the functioning of the balancing energy market, and facilitating the implementation of demand response measures, the statement, quoted by BTA, adds.

The proposal includes investments in areas such as developing an information system to identify energy-poor and vulnerable households, promoting the use of renewable energy and electric vehicles in the provision of social services, and implementing additional electricity storage by scaling up an existing investment. Bulgaria proposes to remove or modify several measures in the plan, while maintaining the intention to retain the funding from the RRP allocated to the country. The proposed changes are related to objective circumstances that affect the feasibility of the respective measures as initially planned, the Commission adds.

Since some of the proposed changes concern unresolved issues related to the second payment request, on April 17, Bulgaria, in agreement with the Commission, requested to withdraw the payment request, with the intention of resubmitting it after the amended plan is approved.

The Commission will continue working with Bulgarian authorities on the plan’s revision and will assess whether the changes meet the necessary requirements. If the assessment is positive, the Commission will propose an amended implementing decision to the Council of the EU. EU member states will have four weeks to deliver their opinion.

The Commission notes that Bulgaria’s RRP includes investment and reform measures and is funded with €5.69 billion in grants.