NEWS

The Head of State: Bulgaria’s Recovery and Sustainability Plan Corresponds Neither to the National Modernisation Ambitions, Nor to the EU Assessment

The assessment by Brussels of Bulgaria’s Recovery and Sustainability Plan not only recommends, but requires that several items be revised, notably due to lack of perspective and sustainability, said President Rumen Radev before journalists in Brussels today, when asked whether the caretaker government is planning on revising the national plan.

Therefore, the caretaker government is actively working on suggesting projects in line with the requirements and in the spirit of modernising a European country. “I hope the caretaker government, with the significant expert potential gathered there, will manage to offer these projects in time. There is a determined timeframe for them to be subject to approval and vote, to be sent back, and if the next regular government recognises them, that means that the work will be done and we will be able to move forward,” Mr. Rumen Radev said.

Questioned about the reactions following the actions of Belarus and the forced grounding of an aeroplane, the President pointed out that they were unanimously condemned in the Declaration passed by the Council. Hijacking and grounding an aircraft is a complete violation of international law and of the rules of civil aviation, and is a threat to flight safety, Mr. Rumen Radev emphasised.

Asked if there was any information that companies under sanctions have constructed the Turkish Stream in Bulgaria with equipment diverted from European projects and whether he was willing to initiate an investigation, the Head of State noted that other institutions initiate investigations.

“Everything possible will be done to check this. Not only on the Turkish Stream. You see an entire motorway is being built ‘in the dark’. Huge amounts of resources are being spent, 4.5 billion Bulgarian leva paid under in-house procedures with no public tenders and unclear criteria. When construction is being carried out ‘in the dark’, this always creates conditions for two things – for corruption and low quality,” Mr. Rumen Radev indicated. The Head of State further added that these checks are extremely difficult, since they have yet to determine who the counterparts are. It is also unclear what funds they have received, for what activities, with what guarantees and what quality.

“These are complex checking mechanisms, requiring large teams of people, who are in fact the same ones concluding contracts, giving money, drafting technical specifications, who have certified the completion of the sites. The same institutions and controlling authorities that have not reacted until now must be mobilised to see whether they had information available or not,” the President further stated.