There is a possibility that the PVU funds will not be lost in their full amount. This is an assessment made not only by us, but also by the EC, whose representatives were on an inspection in our country last week. Seven investments have no chance of happening, and 15 are in a very critical phase. For the rest - the risk will definitely be overcome. Thus told with facts, the PVU has suffered a major catastrophe, but it has not been totally lost. Its total value is 6 billion euros or 12 billion leva. We have only received the first payment from it, of which we have invested only half. Why should there be a next tranche, given that over the past 3.5-4 years you have not managed to even manage 50 percent of what you have already paid.
This was stated on “Hello, Bulgaria” on Nova TV by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadjov, commenting on the question of whether there is a possibility that some of the projects financed by the PVU will remain without funds.
“For the EC, the process of changes in the legislation, for which we have undertaken a commitment, is moving in the way it has been so far. We have adopted a very large part of the laws. The manipulation that has been circulating since yesterday is that if we adopt the Personal Bankruptcy Law and make our choice of the Anti-Corruption Commission - the money will flow. This is a requirement, but there are countless other requirements for tenders that did not happen and reforms that have not already happened. How can we catch up with them?”, Karadjov asked.
And he gave an example of other countries that have “smarter rulers”. “They put in place the lightest reforms first. They made changes – the lighter and guaranteed reforms that happen in months, not years, in the first payments. And where did we put our heaviest reform, the one in energy, which was supposed to be in the ninth payment? And why should a stupid thing be called a reform at all? The problem with energy is very big and was recognized back in 2023 by Assen Vassilev, when he said that he was starting to revise the Energy Law so that “the goals they set for themselves on August 3, 2023 - by September of the same year, all laws related to the second payment - could be adopted”. He set himself a goal. Did he achieve it? Who is to blame?”, said the Deputy Prime Minister.
Karadzhov explained that if we close the thermal power plants that currently produce electricity - there will be no electricity. “We are currently operating at 100% capacity, and we are buying very expensive electricity. At the same time, the northern countries pay 3 euros per megawatt hour. And we pay 130 euros as of today. Is there a market? We do not. We showed this example, together with the Minister of Energy, to the European experts - what are the prices of wind turbines and what are the prices of cheap lignite coal. In this market - should we give up our power plants? Can you make up for what was lost in three years in 18 months? Can you dispose of the fate of tens of thousands of families who work around these thermal power plants so that the money for the second payment comes?”, he is categorical.