Is Bulgaria moving away from Europe? Pekanov is speaking
The Deputy Prime Minister for Management of European Funds Atanas Pekanov commented on the Recovery and Sustainability Plan. Bulgaria receives the first tranche of funds in the amount of BGN 2.7 billion.
“Fulfill the commitment. After receiving it, the money is transferred to the account of the Ministry of Finance and through it all projects under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan will be paid. Some of them have already started to be implemented. The Ministry of Innovation and Growth has already launched several procedures in the summer for technical modernization and cyber security. The interest in them was huge – they exceeded the available funds three times. The construction of the metro in Sofia, the “TETRA” system of the Ministry of the Interior, is already starting business. The energy efficiency projects will also start next week,” he said.
According to him, the funds from the second tranche should arrive in our country during the required year. For this purpose, however, the country should have implemented the 66 measures set out in the Plan, 22 of which require legislative action.
“One of the laws was removed in the hall, which is a huge problem. If there are issues with it, they can be cleared up and debated during the readings. We are talking about the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers and Corruption. transposes a European directive from 2019. Sanctions will be applied to the country because of unpleasantness, but because of the compensation, the request for the second tranche will also be delayed,” he explained.
Pekanov expresses the position that the Law was removed for political reasons.
“The delay does not mean a loss of funds. They will come when we have finished the work,” stated the Deputy Prime Minister.
On Bulgaria ON AIR, he made the accused comments that he refused to meet with the representatives of the miners.
“I received invitations saying that I should go and explain the commitment made to renegotiate the Plan. We have not made such a commitment at the moment, as there is no mechanism yet. The responsible decision was not to go and promise anything , which is still not clear how it will be implemented”, emphasizes the Deputy Prime Minister, adding that no country has started renegotiation of the Plan.
According to Pekanov, “reducing carbon emissions by 40% would be very difficult to achieve” as it is “relatively unclear how it will happen because there is no set mechanism”.
“I have my reservations and I see how difficult this will be, especially when Bulgaria is helping Greece and Romania. Our energy system supports the security of the energy system in the Balkans,” he announced.
It became clear from Pekanov’s statements that if Bulgaria abandons the current plan, all investment projects will be stopped.
“The project for the battery factory seems difficult to implement in this volume. However, this does not mean that we should completely give up on it, but think about how it can be supplemented and changed,” he thinks of another project included in the Recovery Plan.
In response to the question of whether Bulgaria is moving away from Europe, Pekanov said that the debates on the sustainability of the Eurozone are also taking place in the country.
“In recent years, we have upgraded the architecture of the Eurozone – inside the mechanisms to help, when there is a given shock, for everyone to cope better together. The Eurozone is increasingly strong and resilient,” the guest stated.
Pekanov summarized that “interest rates will rise in the coming years because of the actions of the central banks, which aim at decreasing inflation”.
“I have always thought that Bulgaria should do more in the social sphere, but at the moment we are in a situation where budgets everywhere have to become tighter. pre-election situation,” he concludes regarding the budget.