site.btaEuropean Commission Provides EUR 1.465 Bln to Bulgaria from Third Payment under Recovery and Resilience Plan

The European Commission (EC) said on Tuesday it is providing EUR 1.465 billion to Bulgaria from the third payment under the national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).

Replying in Bulgarian to an inquiry by BTA, the EC said that on December 2, it adopted a partially positive assessment of Bulgaria’s third payment request under the RRP. The Commission found that Bulgaria had successfully completed 48 of the 50 milestones and targets linked to the third payment request, but also found that Milestone 220, concerning the creation and start of operations of an anti-corruption body, and part of the requirements of Milestone 222, concerning legislation on criminal proceedings and on the accountability and criminal liability of the Prosecutor General, had not been satisfactorily fulfilled at this stage.

As a result, the Commission proposed temporarily to postpone part of the total amount of the third payment in line with the Regulation on the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the EC said to BTA.

After receiving the opinion of the Economic and Financial Committee of the Council and after receiving a response from the Bulgarian authorities regarding the preliminary assessment, the EC adopted an official decision on December 22 for a partial third payment of EUR 1.465 billion while temporarily withholding EUR 152.896 million, according to the EC reply to BTA's inquiry.

Bulgaria has six months to take action and complete the remaining reforms under the third payment. Once the milestones have been met, the remaining part of the payment will be released, the EC added.

Bulgaria submitted the third payment request under the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility on October 1, 2025, with the total amount standing at EUR 1.619 billion. The payment has the largest number of milestones and targets, and covers 22 reforms and 19 investments. The leading measures concern the continuation of reforms in areas such as research and innovation, decarbonization, improvement of the governance framework for state-owned enterprises, and development of e-healthcare.