Bulgaria risks losing €2.5 billion from EU Social Climate Fund

Sofia: Bulgaria risks losing €2.5 billion in EU grants from the Social Climate Fund because it is late in preparing its national plan, influential NGOs such as WWF, Za Zemyata (For the Earth) and Habitat Bulgaria have warned.

“There are concerns that Bulgaria will not be able to submit its Social Climate Plan to the European Commission on time, which would mean losing the money allocated,” the organizations say.

The Bulgarian Social Climate Plan is due to be presented in Brussels by the end of June this year. A week ago, the government’s coordination unit was closed, without it being clear who exactly is working on this issue in Sofia.

The social plan aims to help Bulgarian citizens and local companies at risk of energy and transport poverty to be supported with money from carbon trading.

Nearly 30% of the Bulgarian population (1.8 million people) are considered energy poor due to their low monthly incomes, according to data from the Bulgarian Agency for Sustainable Energy Development.

“It is extremely important to create a simplе procedure that reduces administrative obstacles so that the money is accessible to all social groups, including the most vulnerable groups and people with permanent disabilities,” commented Za Zemiata energy expert Svetoslav Stoykov.

Bulgaria risks losing another 4 billion euros in grants from the European Recovery and Resilience Plan, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev admitted earlier in March.

The current government in Sofia, which was elected in January, promises to try to catch up by adopting the necessary reforms to save the funding from the Recovery Plan, but the political situation is complicated.

Late last week, the Constitutional Court declared that the populist Velichie (Greatness) party was entitled to 10 seats in the Bulgarian parliament, reducing the ruling coalition’s majority to an absolute minimum of 121 votes out of a total of 240.

Political experts predict that this could lead to another snap election in Bulgaria, which has been rocked by a political crisis for the past four years. A prolonged crisis would lead to delayed reforms and the loss of billions in European grants.