Caretaker Finance Minister: Around EUR 200 Mln in Approved Municipal Projects Await Disbursement

Metodi Yordanov, Nikoleta Vasileva

Caretaker Finance Minister Klisurski at the forum (BTA Photo/Milena Stoykova)

Sofia,

24.02.2026 17:57

(BTA)

"Approximately EUR 200 million under already approved municipal projects are awaiting disbursement, and I am committed to ensuring this happens as quickly as possible," said here on Tuesday caretaker Minister of Finance Georgi Klisurski during the 39th General Assembly of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria, where delegates raised a number of questions related to the operation of the budget extension law, capital expenditures and the security of transfers to local authorities.

According to him, instead of limiting spending to the level of expenditures for the same period of the previous year, it is proposed that municipalities be allowed to spend up to the amount of their own revenues collected. No decision of the municipal council will be required for current expenditures, while capital expenditures will require explicit approval by the local parliament.

The Minister emphasized that a priority is the fastest possible disbursement of funds under municipal projects that have been approved by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and have reached the Bulgarian Development Bank. At present, around EUR 200 million is awaiting payment to approximately 180 municipalities, he said.

The total resource envisaged under the budget extension law for the investment programme this year amounts to around EUR 450-460 million (nearly BGN 900 million), with part of the funds already disbursed. Klisurski acknowledged that until now there has not been a sufficiently clear and predictable procedure for implementing the national investment programme and expressed readiness to improve coordination with municipalities.

Representatives of local authorities voiced serious concerns that in the absence of a regular state budget, the municipalities’ capital programme could in practice be blocked or severely restricted. Mayors insisted on the regular provision of the targeted subsidy for capital expenditures following the model of previous years, so that public procurement procedures and construction activities can begin in the first half of the year.

Klisurski stated that the draft budget extension law currently does not provide for the targeted capital subsidy, as the Finance Ministry’s concept was for its absence to be offset through the possibility of spending own revenues and through the investment programme. He allowed that changes are possible in the course of discussions.

Regarding the increase in the minimum wage and its impact on municipal budgets, the minister noted that the budget extension law prioritizes payments, with wages and social security contributions ranked first. He pointed out that municipalities may use their own revenues to cover part of the costs, but acknowledged that this puts local authorities in a difficult situation.

The forthcoming reform of the municipal waste fee was also discussed during the debate, including the need for a longer preparatory period and the provision of funding for equipment and systems for individual reporting.

/DS/