August 31 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria sent a formal request to the European Commission to receive the first disbursement, of nearly 2.7 billion levs ($1.38 billion/1.38 billion euro), under the approved national recovery and resilience plan (RRP), Bulgaria's interim deputy prime minister in charge of EU funds Atanas Pekanov said on Wednesday.
Along with the request, Bulgaria has filed proof of the 22 key stages and targets which were agreed as a prerequisite for the disbursement of the funds, Pekanov said in a statement.
The remaining roughly 8.5 billion levs will be unlocked subject to the completion of pre-agreed additional reforms and investment projects by the next parliament, to be formed after the October 2 general elections.
In April, the Commission approved 13.5 billion levs for Bulgaria's economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, with investments on the cards in the green transition, education and science, research and innovation, healthcare, railways, and the latest technologies.
In July, the Commission decided to reduce grant financing under the plan by 578 million euro to 5.69 billion euro ($5.68 billion), after Bulgaria posted better economic indicators than the EU average for 2021 based on final data as at June 30.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)