What is happening
The European Commission has put forward a proposal to change the EU decision governing Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), its national plan under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The document, COM(2026) 431, is dated 4 August 2026. It is not an adopted change: EUR-Lex records the file’s stage as “Proposal published.”21
Bulgaria asked the Commission on 10 June 2026 to amend the plan, saying it was partly no longer achievable because of objective circumstances. The proposal covers 45 existing measures: it would remove one, partly revise six because of unexpected delays outside Bulgaria’s control, change four to use alternatives Bulgaria described as better, and alter 34 to reduce administrative burden while retaining their objectives.2
The proposed removal concerns a unified information system for spatial planning, investment design and building permits. Resources freed by removals or reduced implementation would be used to add digitalisation investments for the Customs Agency and National Revenue Agency. The proposal would also increase implementation of a subsidy scheme for renovating residential buildings.2
Why it matters
The changes would revise the distribution of milestones and targets—steps and results used in the plan—across instalments, taking account of Bulgaria’s amended plan and indicative timeline. A full replacement annex would set out the revised plan. The available source package does not include that annex, so it does not establish the detailed revised milestones, targets or schedule.2
The Commission says the revisions leave its overall positive assessment unchanged for the plan’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence. In its assessment, measures supporting climate objectives account for 48.9% of the amended plan’s total allocation and digital measures 21.2%. The Commission also concludes that the amended plan is expected to meet the do no significant harm principleA principle under which the amended plan is expected to ensure that no measure significantly harms environmental objectives, as defined in the EU taxonomy regulation..2
What happens next
The proposed instrument is a Council implementing decision, so the Council would need to adopt it before the amendment takes effect. If adopted as proposed, it would replace the 2022 decision’s annex entirely while leaving Bulgaria’s EU financial contribution unchanged at EUR 6,174,106,145. The EUR-Lex metadata does not specify a next actor or timetable.21