The Council of Ministers adopted a plan to accelerate work on the "Regional Development" Program 2021-2027 and the Just Transition Fund. The goal is to prevent the loss of European funds for over 3 billion euros, Atanas Pekanov announced at a briefing.
According to him, in recent years the implementation of the program has been greatly delayed due to a lack of consistent policy and sufficient action by previous governments. Only about 50% of the funds have been agreed upon in five years, and the actual amounts paid are only 10%.
“We are facing the danger of this resource being irretrievably lost“, Pekanov warned.
By the end of 2026, Bulgaria must declare to the European Commission the costs incurred for approximately 800 million euros. According to him, without the plan adopted by the government, this amount was put at immediate risk.
The controversial procedure for 127 million euros is stopped
As one of the key steps, Pekanov pointed to the termination of a procedure for 127 million euros, intended to support small and medium-sized enterprises in the Stara Zagora region.
He stated that the competition was prepared by the “Zhelyazkov“ cabinet, and the criteria for evaluating the projects were manipulated. According to Pekanov, the procedure was designed so that the funds would reach companies close to the previous government.
In the first days of the current government, the European Commission warned that it would not finance a single project under this procedure. The subsequent internal audit also identified problems in determining the criteria, Pekanov explained.
Conversations with business representatives further confirmed the need to terminate the procedure. According to him, some of the entrepreneurs were also aware of the way the selection was organized.
There will be a new competition with objective criteria
The funds will not be lost, Pekanov assured. A new procedure is about to be opened, in which the projects will be evaluated according to transparent and objective rules.
The actions to terminate the current competition were taken in recent weeks together with Minister Shishkov. According to Pekanov, this will allow the money to remain available to Bulgaria and be actually directed towards the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the region.
The government's new plan should accelerate the negotiation and disbursement of European funds so that the country can meet the deadlines set by the European Commission and avoid losing hundreds of millions of euros by the end of this year.