The Commission has received, on October 15, an official Recovery and Resilience plan from the Government of Bulgaria. The plan presents the reforms and public investment projects that Bulgaria plans to implement with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RFF). With this plan, Bulgaria requested a total of €6.6 billion in grants under the RRF, divided into four action pillars: Innovative Bulgaria, Green Bulgaria, Connected Bulgaria and Fair Bulgaria. These pillars include investments in the areas of education, research and innovation, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, digital connectivity, social inclusion, and healthcare. Projects in the plan cover the entire lifetime of the RRF, ranging from 2021 to 2026. The European Commission will now assess Bulgaria’s plan based on criteria set by the Recovery and Resilience Facility regulation.

Meanwhile, on October 13, the European Commission disbursed €822.7 million to Slovakia in a pre-financing payment worth 13% of its national plan under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. This will allow the country to kick-start the implementation of the plan, as well as the reforms and investments it contains.

With these updates, the Netherlands is now the only member state who has not yet submitted a national plan under the Recovery and Resilience facility, while the plans of 22 member states have been approved by the Commission, of which 19 have also been approved by the Council, and 17 have received their respective share of pre-financing.

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