On Friday, in view of all the efforts we have made, as well as previous governments - Bulgaria received the fourth payment under the PVP based on reforms. A key reform was the creation of the Anti-Corruption Commission. This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov in the program "The Day Begins" on BNT.
Last year, another Anti-Corruption Commission was created, which was not independent, about half a billion were blocked and would have been lost if a small postponement had not been taken. But the key work was in the elections - Prime Minister Radev won the votes, and in the first three weeks "Progressive Bulgaria" came, along with other parties, voted for this commission, he added.
The Deputy Prime Minister recalled that the creation of an Anti-Corruption Commission was included in the PVU during the time of Kiril Petkov.
"The commission was created without a clear majority, it was not clear how it would function, whether we would not end up in the situation we ended up in - for 4 years a huge amount of money for Bulgaria was blocked. Instead of attacking us, the opposition could have thanked Prime Minister Radev and the PB for their reforms. This situation in the PVU reminds me - two or three seasons ago there were quite a few matches in which Real (Madrid) was lagging behind, but in the last seconds managed to turn the game around. This is what we have to do," Atanas Pekanov also pointed out.
We are still in a difficult situation, he specified. "In addition to the creation of the Anti-Corruption Commission, amendments related to the Prosecutor General were adopted, they will bring us another 150 million euros, amendments were made to the Water Act. There were delays and problems in the Ministry of Energy sector, they are also being worked on. We have started the long-delayed reform in BEH, which concerns coal enterprises. We need to make very difficult reforms there," noted Deputy Prime Minister Pekanov.
And he added: Until last week, we had received 53%, now we have received 68%. My goal is to be over 90% at the end. Many ministries must complete their investment projects. For the fifth payment, we have 56 stages that we must report. Currently, we have not reported any as completed, and we have 50 days.
The Deputy Prime Minister also commented on the announced excessive deficit procedure: "For several years, the country's fiscal trajectory has been unsustainable. This means that every year the state's expenses increase much more than its revenues. We prefer to say it now and look for measures to improve this. We need to seek constant consolidation - not to suddenly make the pizza lean, but to reduce calories slowly and gradually over time. You will see this in the budget - measures to reduce this year, to optimize some expenses, but also to make changes to our long-term vision.