The Capitals

The Bulgarian government has announced that it will forgo €600 million in EU grants for projects under the Recovery Plan, admitting that it cannot make up for the delay and complete them by 2026.

The most expensive project is a €172 million geothermal heat and power project that has been left untouched by the EU's poorest country for the past three years.

The government is also scrapping a major project to build new water supply networks in small towns of up to 10,000 people. Authorities in Sofia say they are abandoning the EU funding despite huge problems with the old water supply network, which has left many places in northern Bulgaria with limited access to drinking water during the summer.

"After a conversation with the European Commission, finding the factual impossibility of implementing some of the projects on time, a decision was made to remove them from the Recovery Plan," Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev commented on Monday. 

Bulgaria is also abandoning projects to expand green hydrogen production, a project to modernise the train control system and the renovation of the Aerospace Observation Centre in Sofia.

(Krasen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)