Report: How does the NRRP money reach the people?

In our new report by Petko Kovachev, an expert in energy policy, we review the implementation of two projects towards the households – for the renovation of multi-family residential buildings and renewable energy sources for households under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).

We analyse the results achieved as of July 2025 and the risks to timely completion and achieving the set goals.

We check how significant the progress is, whether the implementation is of high quality, what obstacles and problems the various participants have encountered along the way, what lessons have been learned, and whether the set goals will ultimately be achieved.

We analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the processes from project preparation to implementation based on the responses provided by various participants in the processes to a questionnaire we prepared in advance. We used public information, interviews, surveys of municipal and ministerial officials, document review, and administrative court decisions.

We try to provide more detailed information about each of the projects, including how they have developed over time, changes, delays, important decisions, public procurement, and others.

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The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) projects targeting households face serious problems in their implementation, with the 100% grant model for home renovations being successful, while its co-financing second phase and the renewable energy programme have been described as ‘failures’. The main reasons include political sabotage, lack of adequate communication with citizens, dysfunctional financial instruments and insufficient administrative capacity, especially for small projects.

The expert’s recommendation is to preserve and transfer the experience gained in municipalities, as well as to improve communication and awareness of citizens. It is also important to develop workable financial instruments to encourage self-participation/co-financing, and the Ministry of Energy to rethink and simplify the procedures for small energy projects.

For positive practices, the author says that the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works has tested digital assessment technologies that have shortened timeframes and produced results almost identical to manual assessment.