EU suspends $246M to Bulgaria over failure to ensure independent anti-corruption body

LONDON

The European Commission has postponed the payment of €215 million ($246.8 million) to Bulgaria over the failure to meet the target of ensuring a politically independent Anti-Corruption Commission, according to media reports on Wednesday.

The decision to halt the payment from Bulgaria's Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) came after the country failed to meet the deadline for establishing a politically independent Anti-Corruption Commission, the BTA news agency reported.

The European Commission will remain in close contact with the Bulgarian authorities to provide the necessary support, the news agency cited a spokesperson for the commission as saying.

According to the report, Bulgaria has six months to comply with the requirement.

In early October, the commission announced that it had sent a letter to Bulgaria requesting a response within one month regarding the unmet requirement, saying that if the conditions were not met, the payment of €215 million would be postponed for another six months.

Days earlier, however, the commission gave preliminary approval to the country's second request for payment under the RRP for €653 million ($750 million).

Bulgaria's RRP has a total value of €6.17 billion ($7.08 billion) in grant funding, according to the report.