SOFIA – Bulgaria risks losing €2.5 billion in EU grants from the Social Climate Fund because of the delay 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 a loss of allocated money,” the organizations say.
Bulgaria's social climate plan is due to be presented in Brussels by the end of June this year. The government's coordination department was closed a week ago, and it is not yet clear who exactly is working on the issue in Sofia.
The social plan aims to help Bulgarian citizens and local companies at risk of energy and transport poverty to receive support through carbon trading.
According to the Bulgarian Agency for Sustainable Energy Development, almost 30% of Bulgaria's population (1.8 million people) are considered energy poor due to low monthly incomes.
“It is extremely important to create a simple procedure that will reduce administrative barriers so that money is available to all social groups, including the most vulnerable and people with permanent disabilities,” commented energy expert of the publication “Za Zemyatu” Svyatoslav Stoykov.
Earlier in March, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev admitted that Bulgaria risks losing another 4 billion euros in grants from the European Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The current government in Sofia, elected in January, has promised to try to make up for lost time by adopting the necessary reforms to preserve the Recovery Plan funding, but the political situation remains difficult.
Late last week, the Constitutional Court ruled that the populist Velichie party is entitled to 10 seats in Bulgaria's parliament, reducing the ruling coalition's majority to an absolute minimum of 121 votes out of 240.
Political experts predict that this could lead to another snap election in Bulgaria, which has been rocked by political crisis for the past four years. A protracted crisis would delay reforms and lose billions in European grants.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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