The European Commission has approved Bulgaria's Recovery and Resilience Plan, under which the country expects to receive more than 12 billion leva. This was announced on Thursday during a visit of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Sofia.

Bulgaria's recovery plan has been revised several times until finally approved. The main remarks were in the areas of energy and the rule of law. Bulgaria is the 23rd country in the European Union (EU) whose plan has been approved by the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.

"This is an exceptional plan," Von der Leyen told on a press conference. "Bulgaria's plan meets the demanding criteria that we established together. It combines investment in the green and digital transition with reforms to address the structural challenges we have."

"This plan is workable, innovative and will really finance change in Bulgaria," said Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.

Before Bulgaria can receive money under the Plan, it has to be approved by all member states. The deadline for this is two months.

The President of the European Commission said that Bulgaria's Plan meets the priorities of the Recovery Mechanism - green transition and digitalization.

The Commission points out that 59% of the money under the Plan will go to measures supporting climate targets. This includes investments to accelerate the decarbonisation of the power sector and triple the electricity generation from renewable sources by 2026. It also includes building electricity storage capacity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by 40% by 2025 and setting a framework for phasing out coal. Some of the funds will also go for supporting building renovation and sustainable transport.

Source: Svobodna Evropa

A summary of the municipal investments in the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, prepared by the NRDC team, can be found here.

On this topic, you can also listen to an interview with Dragomir Tsanev on BNR broadcast's "Horizont do obed" here.