The Cabinet is removing 8 projects from the Public Investment Plan for over 1 billion leva. This became clear at a briefing by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev and Minister of Finance Temenuzhka Petkova at the Council of Ministers, Nova TV reports.
"It has now become clear to everyone that there is a huge delay in the implementation of the Public Investment Plan. The time left for its implementation is less than 18 months. The key question for me is how to maintain the stability of public finances and how to prevent projects and investments that are included in the Public Investment Plan – not to allow them to be financed from the state budget, which will adversely affect the 2026 Budget", said Petkova.
According to her, every expense that would remain at the expense of the budget – will reflect on the deficit for 2026. This is key from the point of view of the convergence reports that are prepared by the EC and the ECB in connection with Bulgaria's membership in the eurozone.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev announced that 8 projects have no chance of being implemented by August 2026. They are worth 1 billion and 20 million leva.
„A large part of these investments we have found an opportunity to be financed in another way”, explained Donchev.
He specified that there are still 22 projects that are at risk. They are worth nearly 2 billion leva. „I intend to give them a deadline of a few weeks. And if there is visible mobilization and there is a chance that they will be completed by August next year – they will remain in the Plan. The rest will be added to the list of dropped projects. Progress will be monitored practically on a daily basis. No investment process has been launched for these 8 projects. Half of them have not even had a public procurement carried out”, summarized the Deputy Prime Minister.
Donchev emphasized that from all the conversations with the EC in the last two weeks – there is agreement on the specific text and bills related to the second payment under the PSU. “There is one very important feature. If Bulgaria mobilizes and manages to implement all the reforms - from the second to the ninth payment, even if we have not implemented all the investments - we should not have to return money to the EC. That is, we may find ourselves in a situation - that we will receive more funds than we can invest in this limited period of a year and a few months,” the Deputy Prime Minister is categorical.