Bulgaria has to submit changes to its Recovery and Resilience Plan to the European Commission by October 20 or risks losing billions of euros, caretaker Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova said on September 27.

A day earlier, the parliament failed to adopt two documents submitted by the Ministry of Finance as representatives of populist There Are Such People (ITN) and far-right pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party blocked the last day of the parliament’s work before the start of the election campaign ahead of the October 27 snap vote.

Petkova said as quoted in a statement on the ministry’s website that the proposed changes are related to investments the country will not be able to carry out within the original deadline, which is August 2026. To save the funds, the ministry has proposed to redirect them to projects of higher national importance that can be implemented.

“Bulgaria is the only EU member state that has received only one payment under the RRP. The request for a second payment was submitted back in 2023 and has not been paid, as it is related to certain reforms that need to be adopted and the roadmap [for climate neutrality] is one of them. Only the financial correction for its non-adoption will amount to €266mn, which is more than 30% of the requested second payment in the amount of €653mn,” Petkova said.

The second resolution, which the parliament failed to adopt, would have allowed the caretaker government of Dimitar Glavchev to continue talks with the EC in order not to lose the funds, and also on the Repower EU €479mn financing.

“At the moment, the caretaker government has no mandate to continue the negotiations with the EC,” Petkova noted.

She also warned that, unless the changes to the RRP are adopted, the country could ultimately lose billions as it cannot request the next payments until it receives the second one.

Theoretically, the parliament can convene to adopt the requested documents if political leaders reach an agreement on that.