site.btaEC Temporarily Suspends Paying Bulgaria EUR 215 Mln under Recovery and Resilience Plan

The European Commission (EC) confirmed that it has decided to temporarily suspend the payment of EUR 215 million from Bulgaria's Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). On Monday, the payment of EUR 439 million to Bulgaria was approved, a spokesperson for the EC told BTA on Wednesday.

The suspension of part of the funds is related to the failure to date to meet the target of ensuring a politically independent Anti-Corruption Commission. Bulgaria has six months to comply with the requirement. The EC will remain in close contact with the Bulgarian authorities to provide the necessary support, the spokesperson added.

In early October, the EC announced that it had sent a letter to Bulgaria requesting a response within one month regarding the unmet requirement. At that time, the Commission explained that if the conditions were not met, the payment of the withheld funds would be postponed for another six months. Days earlier, the Commission gave preliminary approval to Bulgaria's second request for payment under the RRP for EUR 653 million.

Bulgaria's RRP has a total value of EUR 6.17 billion in grant funding.