European Commission approves 511M euro for Bulgaria to deal with economic impact of Covid-19 crisis

The European Commission has approved an amendment to Bulgaria's Operational Programme "Innovation and Competitiveness", which allows the mobilisation of 511 million euros to deal with the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The financial support includes working capital grants for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, capital investments and loan guarantees.

"Bulgaria is one of the first member states to take advantage of the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+) mechanism," EU Cohesion and Reform Commissioner Elisa Ferreira said on November 26.

The amendment of this operational programme is possible thanks to the flexibility provided within the (the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+), which allows Member States to use cohesion policy funding. This supports the sectors most exposed to the pandemic, such as healthcare, small and medium-sized enterprises and labour markets.