The Technical Support Instrument (TSI) provides tailor-made technical expertise to EU Member States to design and to implement reforms, in a wide range of areas such as revenue administration and public financial management, public administration and governance, growth and business environment, labour market, education and social services, migration, and financial market and access to finance. The TSI has been also supporting the preparation and implementation of Recovery and Resilience Plans.
Initiated in 2021, the TSI is the successor of the Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP). Since 2017, both programmes have helped design, develop and implement over 2000 reform projects in 27 Member States. Those reforms support Member States address their reform agenda, in line with the EU priorities and the country specific recommendations issued in the context of the European Semester.
COMPLETED AND ONGOING REFORM PROJECTS IN BULGARIA*
* The above data include all projects completed and ongoing at the time of the announcement of the annual TSI financing decision. During their execution, projects can be further split or aggregated, cancelled or withdrawn. Therefore, figures related to the approved reform support projects can slightly differ.
Reform projects approved under the Technical Support Instrument
The Technical Support Instrument annual cycle is launched every year during the dedicated TSI Annual Conference. The conference also starts the discussion with Member States on potential multi-country projects, geared at addressing common issues among Member States thereby emphasizing the EU added-value of the instrument. The event is also the opportunity to present the new "Flagship" projects, supporting reforms which are largely needed across Member States and are in line with the EU key political priorities.
For 2025, the Commission approved the following 10 reform support projects for Bulgaria:
- Improving the efficiency and quality of public investments in Bulgaria
- Action plans for sustainable forest management in Bulgaria
- Technical assistance for road safety measures implementation
- Capacity building of Ministry of e-Governance of Bulgaria as competent authority for developing public policy for AI for implementing AI Act
Multi-country projects:
- Supporting Digital Transformation in Competition Law Enforcement
- EU Public Leadership Program
- Empowering Digital Transformation in Bulgarian Schools by Introducing Technology Leadership Teams
- Enhancing the quality and use of tax information exchanged between Member States in the context of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC) in Bulgaria
- EU Supervisory Digital Finance Academy
For 2024, the Commission approved the following 11 reform support projects for Bulgaria:
- Analytical support to the development of the National Industrial Strategy
- Digitalization of the procedure for granting international protection in Bulgaria
- Innovative approaches to address negative demographic trends in Bulgaria
- Strengthening the capacity to design and monitor public policies
- Strengthening the tax fraud investigation capacity of the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency
Multi-country projects:
- Development of legal framework for fully fledged and comprehensive regional green hydrogen market
- Enhancing the Centre of Government’s capacities to steer complex priorities and manage crisis and megatrends through peer to peer review and learning
- Enhancing the National Strategy for preventing and combating irregularities and fraud affecting the financial interests of the European Union over the period 2021-2027
- Fighting bid rigging in public procurement: improving compliance and competition for public contracts
- Raising the quality of early childhood education and care by strengthening governance, monitoring and evaluation
- Technical assistance for curriculum reform for quality and excellence in education
For 2023, the Commission approved the following 13 reform support projects for Bulgaria:
- Optimising processes and services at the National Employment Agency of Bulgaria
- Strengthening the Strategic Approach and Innovation in the Civil Service in Bulgaria
- Enhancing the capabilities for risk-based AML supervision and financial intelligence in Bulgaria
- Creation and implementation of regulatory mechanisms for the natural gas market in Bulgaria
- Supporting the implementation of efficient insolvency procedures in Bulgaria
- Strategy for the development of entrepreneurship, innovation and digitization in Stara Zagora and a roadmap for its implementation
Multi-country projects:
- PACE - Civil service mobility
- EU Supervisory Digital Finance Academy
- Enhance strategic tax administration reforms through Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool in Bulgaria
- ESG risk management framework for the financial sector
- Proof of concept of AI models in market abuse monitoring
- EU Survey of Central Government Public Servants: Strengthening Evidence-based People Management Policies and Reforms
- Communicating the benefits of the recovery and resilience plans to the general public
In 2022, the Commission approved 7 reform projects for Bulgaria:
- Developing fiscal decentralization and improving local financial management
- Enhance tax compliance by Implementation of Standard Audit File in Bulgaria
- Strategic Development of the Commission for Anti-Corruption and Illegal Assets Forfeiture and Improvement of Tools for Prevention and Counteraction of Corruption
- Establishing balanced distribution of the workload in the judiciary system
- Technical assistance for the elaboration of a National Skills Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria (Skills Strategy BG)
- Strengthening the capacity to implement the National Strategy for Financial Literacy
Multi-country projects:
- Support to REPowerEU
More information can be found in the 2022 Country Factsheets.
In 2021, the Commission approved the following 8 reform projects for Bulgaria:
- Reforming the integrity checks of the employees of the Commission for Anti-Corruption and Illegal Assets Forfeiture
- Establishment of the National Decarbonisation Fund
- Improving public investment efficiency and effectiveness
- Increasing the network and information security in the Bulgarian Revenue Agency
- Development and implementation of a Corruption Risk Assessment Methodology at the National Revenue Agency
- Strengthening the compliance management by assessing external context and taxpayers’ behaviour
- Monitoring Cooperative Compliance Model within Bulgarian Revenue Agency
- General technical support for the implementation of Bulgaria's Recovery and Resilience Plan
More information can be found in the 2021 Country Factsheets.
Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) projects (2017-2020)
The TSI expands on the experience of the SRSP programme in building capacity in Member States. You can find the full list of SRSP projects here.
Highlighted projects
The Commission aims at supporting the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance in the implementation of the National Strategy for Financial Literacy (NSFL) adopted at country level in February 2021.
Supported by the Technical Support Instrument (TSI), the Commission aimed to create a comprehensive skills action plan aligned with Bulgaria's national priorities and EU policy priorities, addressing demographic shifts and digital transformations.
Want to find out more?
You can easily search projects from all Member States through the interactive map and learn more about reform projects.
Related links
Selected projects for promising results and their potential to be replicated across the EU.