Bulgaria 's request for the second tranche of funding under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) has been met with resistance from Brussels. The European Commission has withheld the release of the payment, which amounts to 1.2 billion leva (653 million euros), citing the country's failure to meet several key reforms outlined in the plan. Although Bulgaria submitted its request for the second payment on October 7, 2023, the Commission’s preliminary assessment revealed that while 53 out of 62