“In the draft budget for 2025 there are expenses that will not happen anyway – like 7 billion leva under the Recovery and Resilience Plan“.
He said this in an interview for the show “Face to Face“ Atanas Pekanov, Deputy Prime Minister in several caretaker governments, responsible for the management of European funds.
Pekanov is categorical that we will not receive the majority of the money under the Recovery Plan allocated to Bulgaria.
„This PVU is starting to look like the BETL pyramid, because we will not take the money, but everyone keeps promising. There is a consensus between the parties: we will not do the reforms, and the European Commission says: if you do not do the reforms, you will not get the money“, commented the former Deputy Prime Minister.
According to him, there are other worrying things in the draft budget proposed by the caretaker cabinet for next year - the increase in salaries in some sectors.
„I support income policy, but not so strongly. Some of them will most likely have to be delayed a bit“, Pekanov believes.
The European Commission says: if you don't do the reforms, you won't get the money“.
According to him, there is only one good proposal – the return of VAT to 20% for restaurateurs.
“It should have happened a long time ago. You can hear a howl that turns into the tyranny of the minority – representatives of the industry occupy the airwaves and say: this is something very scary. What is scary – the unequal treatment of one industry compared to others“, added Atanas Pekanov.