By the end of the year, the government intends to submit a request for a third payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan. This was stated in "Speak Now" by the MP from "There Are Such People" Dimitar Gardev.
The requested amount will be 1.6 billion euros, he specified. The second tranche must be approved by the end of this month. Gardev explained that a lot of time has been lost over the last 4 years, but we have the opportunity in 2026 to absorb all the funds. The total value of the plan is about 6.1 billion euros.
There is a tendency for votes of no confidence not to pass and the opposition to appear extremely diverse, the MP commented on the fifth attempt to overthrow the government. Asked about the proposal to revoke the president's powers to appoint heads of SANS and DAR, Gardev replied that these functions are not enshrined in the Constitution, but were given to the head of state subsequently.
"Currently, we see that this function has put the state in a stupor - they cannot be elected. Having seen such a result, I believe that this must be corrected in some way, because not all services have been taken away from the president, and in reality the burden of the policy being pursued falls on the government," he added.
A strategic change is coming to the EU and Bulgaria can benefit from the financial framework of 2 trillion euros, which is yet to be negotiated:
"This is the only real result for Bulgaria from EU membership, because it is an exceptional accelerator. The goal of the Bulgarians is to fight as hard as possible for all the money, because we will not see such money again. For this, a working parliament is definitely needed.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent a declaration to the government to protect Bulgaria's interests in relation to the Union's cohesion policy - it provides for 100% financing of the countries bordering Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
"Bulgaria has been omitted. We demanded recognition of the Black Sea region and Bulgaria, which is suffering all the negative effects of the war in Ukraine, all the sanctions regimes," Gardev added.
According to him, the funds from these programs can be redirected to infrastructure, to the energy network, to regions affected by drought or sparsely populated areas.
After signing the contracts with "Rheinmetall", we become the only country that produces three-component gunpowder in Europe, said Dimitar Gardev.
"We get "Rheinmetall" as a brand and we get their markets. This is not only an investment in defense, but in jobs, in infrastructure, in the budget as well. We haven't had new technologies for 30 years, the markets for old Soviet models have ended - even in Ukraine. Russia itself produces new weapons and military equipment. We get an accelerator," he commented.