Today, the Commission paid €1.37 billion to Bulgaria and €700 million to Croatia under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
Today’s payment of €1.37 billion of grants (excluding pre-financing) to Bulgaria was made possible thanks to Bulgaria’s fulfilment of the 22 milestones and targets linked to the first instalment. They cover important first steps in reforms and investments towards decarbonising the energy sector, promoting large-scale deployment of digital infrastructure, reforming the judicial system, strengthening the anti-money laundering framework, digitalising the public sector, strengthening the adequacy and coverage of the minimum income scheme. Measures to ensure that the audit and control system for the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is up to standard are also included. The implementation of these measures was required before the disbursement of the first payment.
Today’s payment of €700 million of grants (excluding pre-financing) to Croatia was made possible by Croatia’s fulfilment of the 25 milestones and targets linked to the second instalment. They cover several reforms and investments in the areas of public administration, the judiciary, social policy, employment, education, skills, energy and energy efficiency, water management and connectivity.
As for all Member States, payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on Bulgaria and Croatia implementing the investments and reforms described in their recovery and resilience plans.
The overall recovery and resilience plan of Bulgaria will be financed by €5.69 billion in the form of grants, while the overall recovery and resilience plan of Croatia will be financed by €5.5 billion in the form of grants. Croatia already received pre-financing payment of €818 million on 28 September 2021, followed by a first payment under the RRF of €700 million on 28 June 2022. The amounts of payments made to Member States are published on the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard, which shows the progress made in the implementation of the RRF as a whole and of the individual recovery and resilience plans.
