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Documented examples

Each record describes something a country built that the indicators do not capture. The source provides the published number; the mechanism is our interpretation.

Scores describe outcomes. These records describe how a country acted, what it needed and what happened. 742 of 742 records include a mechanism. They do not affect scores.

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4 of 742 deliveries

Learning

1 delivery linked to Adult learning participation.

Bulgariasince 2002still operatingbears on Adult learning participation

Employment Agency adult training, including the DI-GI digital skills vouchers

Bulgaria's Employment Agency (Agentsia po zaetostta) included more than 155,450 unemployed and employed adults in training in 2025, against just over 87,540 in 2024, with 97,911 people certified through digital skills vouchers financed under the national Recovery and Resilience Plan.

155,450 people, unemployed and employed people included in adult training by the employment agency ('over 155 450'), 2025. 87,540 people, same count for the previous year ('just over 87 540'), 2024. Agentsia po zaetostta (Employment Agency), Otchet na Plana za deystvie na Agentsiyata po zaetostta za 2025 g. (report on the 2025 action plan), text volume, retrieved 2026-10-02.

The move, and what it needed

The national employment agency issues training vouchers to unemployed, inactive and employed adults, who choose a licensed provider, and pays the provider on completion, with EU recovery and social funds paying for most of the volume.

Preconditions

  • A register of licensed vocational training providers under the national VET agency
  • An online voucher application system run through the labour offices
  • EU funding lines (RRF, ESF+) large enough to pay for courses at national scale

Limits: The agency reports on itself, and the cited URL is a zip archive from the agency's 'Otchet za deynostta na AZ' page holding two PDFs; the headline counts are on page 81 of the 84-page text volume (Otchet_Plan za deistvie_2025_text.pdf), and both are stated as 'over' and 'just over', so they are rounded. The 2025 jump is mostly vouchers: 97,911 people certified in basic and advanced digital skills under component 2 of investment C1.I3 of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (page 34), and 22,140 employed people trained under the ESF+ project for employed workers; much of the money is EU, though the agency delivers it. Digital skills courses can be short and online, the counts mix enrolment and certification, and one person may appear in more than one scheme. Training for the registered unemployed is far smaller: 6,705 unemployed people were included in training under the programmes and measures of the national employment action plan (page 17). The RRF component ends with the facility in 2026, so 2025 is unlikely to be a stable level. The 2002 start is the year of the Employment Promotion Act under which the agency trains adults, not read at the source.

Adaptability

1 delivery linked to Institutional responsiveness.

Bulgariasince 2020delivered and closedbears on Institutional responsiveness

The 60/40 employment retention measure, 2020 to 2021

Bulgaria's National Social Security Institute paid employers 60 percent of the wages and contributions of staff kept on during the COVID-19 emergency under Council of Ministers Decree No. 55 of 2020, starting with 68 employers and 1,065 employees on 15 April 2020, and by 4 March 2021 the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy reported BGN 884 million paid under the measure and 300,000 jobs kept.

884 million BGN, paid under the 60/40 measure, cumulative, 2021-03-04. 1,065 employees, employees in the first published payment list (68 employers), 2020-04-15. Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of Bulgaria, news release 'Ministar Sacheva: 884 mln. lv. sa plateni po myarkata 60/40, kato sa zapazeni 300 000 rabotni mesta', 4 March 2021, retrieved 2026-10-02.

The move, and what it needed

The Council of Ministers decreed that the social security fund would pay 60 percent of wages and contributions for workers whose employers kept them on, with the employer paying the other 40 percent, and the Employment Agency approved applications that the social security institute then paid and published employer by employer.

Preconditions

  • Monthly employer declarations to the social security institute that identified each insured worker
  • An Employment Agency able to process employer applications in county offices
  • A social security fund with the liquidity to pay employers before the budget was revised

Where else it has been used: A short-time work design of the German type with a fixed state share; Bulgaria's distinctive move was publishing every paid employer by name, which made the scheme auditable by the public.

Limits: The BGN 884 million and the 300,000 jobs are a minister's statement on the ministry's own site, with no breakdown; 'jobs kept' is the number of supported positions, not a counterfactual estimate of jobs saved. The start figures are our sums from the National Social Security Institute's first payment list (nssi.bg, 'Izplateni kompensatsii po PMS No. 55 ot 2020 g.', file pms55_15042020.xls: 68 employers, 1,065 persons, BGN 274,274), one of 45 lists the Institute published to December 2021; one of them (14 May 2020) is truncated at the source and cannot be read, so we do not give a total from the lists. Speed was modest: the ministry reported only 643 employer applications covering 7,231 employees in late April 2020 (mlsp.government.bg, '643 zayavleniya ot rabotodateli sa postapili po skhemata 60/40'), and uptake grew through May and June. The decree date and the date of the emergency declaration are not on the pages opened, so the record times the response from the first payment, not from the shock.

Building

2 deliveries linked to Large project delivery.

Bulgariasince 2008delivered and closedbears on Large project delivery

Road Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project, and its cut after the 2009 budget squeeze

Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency rehabilitated national roads under a EUR144 million project approved in June 2007, but after budget cuts in 2010 cancelled three lots on about 87 km where works had not started, reducing the length from 450 km to 307 km, and closed in June 2013, two years late, at EUR97.1 million, 67 percent of the appraisal estimate.

97.146 million euros, total project cost, actual, 2013-06-30. 144 million euros, total project cost, appraisal estimate, 2007-06-26. World Bank, Implementation Completion and Results Report, Bulgaria Road Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project, December 2013, retrieved 2026-10-02.

The move, and what it needed

The road agency contracted nine regional rehabilitation lots on a loan, then, when the national budget could not cover its co-financing and payments, cancelled the lots not yet started and stretched the rest over two more years.

Preconditions

  • Co-financing from a national budget exposed to a fiscal shock
  • Contracts signed before the budget for their full duration was secured
  • A lender willing to restructure and extend rather than close

Limits: The figures are the World Bank's, from a completion report on its own loan, which reproduces the agency's own implementation report as an annex. The 450 to 307 km reduction and the cancelled lots are in section 1.6 (printed page 4); the costs in Annex 1 (page 19); the original and revised closing dates on the datasheet. Spending fell because scope was cut, not because works came in cheap, so the 67 percent is a measure of a shrunken programme, not of savings. The cause the report names is the government's fiscal restraint after the 2008 to 2009 crisis, with 2010 budget funds spent on 2009 obligations, and only 8 to 9 percent of the loan disbursed by mid-2009. These are rehabilitation lots on existing class I to III roads, not a new motorway, and the record says nothing about the EU-funded motorways built in the same years.

Bulgariasince 2008dismantledbears on Large project delivery

Belene nuclear power plant, and its cancellation

Bulgaria's state utility NEK ordered long-lead reactor equipment for the Belene nuclear plant from Atomstroyexport in 2008. The project was cancelled before any unit was completed, and on 6 December 2016 the Ministry of Energy transferred 601,617,133 euros to NEK so it could pay the damages awarded against it in ICC arbitration case 18086/GZ/MHM.

601,617,133 EUR, state financial assistance transferred to nek to pay the belene arbitration award to atomstroyexport, 2016-12-06. 1,400,000,000 BGN, costs incurred on the belene construction to date, as stated by the minister of energy, 2016. Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Bulgaria, press release of 6 December 2016, retrieved 2026-10-02.

The move, and what it needed

NEK, the state utility, ordered long-lead reactor equipment from a single foreign vendor in 2008 before financing or a final contract price was settled. The government cancelled the project in 2012, the Ministry of Energy advanced NEK repayable assistance in 2016 to pay the vendor's arbitration claim, and the project was revived in 2018.

Preconditions

  • A state utility allowed to commit to equipment orders before the project's financing was closed
  • Political control of the decision that changed with each government
  • A single-vendor contract enforceable in international arbitration

Limits: Belene never produced electricity, so this record documents a delivery that failed before it operated, not a capability that eroded. The headline number is a termination cost, the arbitration damages for equipment ordered in 2008, and not a cost overrun against a budget: the record carries no official baseline budget or schedule for the 2008 phase. The 1.4 billion leva of costs incurred comes from a minister speaking in a television interview. The ministry republished the transcript without a printed date; the 2016 year is inferred from the special assistance law the interview discusses. It is not an audited figure. The project was decided in April 2005, cancelled in March 2012, and revived by a National Assembly decision of 7 June 2018 and a Council of Ministers decision of 29 June 2018. Later decisions on the site and the equipment are not covered by these sources. The 601.6 million euros was advanced to NEK as repayable assistance, not a grant, so the final fiscal loss is not shown here. The later disposal or reuse of the equipment the payment bought is not covered.