European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova told bTV on Sunday that there is a real danger for Bulgaria not obtaining funds under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
Ivanova noted that so far there Bulgaria has received only one payment of funds under the NRRP, which was completed at the end of 2022. According to the EU Commissioner, Bulgaria is supposed to be receiving a fourth payment anytime now, but the country is still awaiting a second.
“This affects the way the Bulgarian economy can benefit from this fresh financial resource, which we are not receiving,” she noted. In her words, in this type of financing, payment is received when certain objectives are met.
Ivanova said that it is possible to catch up partially, but there is a clearly fixed deadline – August 2026. If the necessary actions on the Bulgarian side are not taken by then, the deadline will be missed and hence the funding opportunity itself, she said.
Regarding Bulgaria’s accession to the euro area, Ivanova said that in a report of the European Commission, it is stated that Bulgaria does not meet only one of the four remaining criteria -the inflation criterion. According to the latest macroeconomic forecasts, this catching up should happen towards the end of 2024, the beginning of 2025, and then a political decision should be taken, Ivanova said.
She stressed that for this reason political stability is very important because the criterion has to be met and the country needs to have a clear and stable government.
/YV/
