BRUSSELS — Liberal lawmakers in the European Parliament want Brussels to halt payments to Bulgaria after the country’s authorities arrested a mayor belonging to their political family.

In a letter to the European Commission, the chair of the liberal Renew Europe group, Valérie Hayer, accused the Bulgarian government of weaponizing the country’s independent anti-corruption body against its political opponents.

“The most alarming evidence of this institutional perversion is the imprisonment of Blagomir Kotsev, the democratically elected mayor of Varna,” she said.

Kotsev, who belongs to the same political family as Hayer, was arrested in mid-July after authorities charged him with embezzling public funds. The detention sparked a wave of protests in Bulgaria.

The Commission is currently assessing whether to release €653 million to Sofia as part of its post-Covid funding mechanism, known as the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Payouts are linked to reforms in areas such as democracy, environmental targets and digital policy.

Bulgaria has so far received €1.37 billion of the €6 billion allocated to it under the RRF by the Commission. As countries hit the agreed milestones, they can request the funds. All funds must be disbursed by the end of 2026.

The creation of the independent Anti-Corruption Commission was one of the conditions the EU executive set for Bulgaria to receive its recovery funds. However, according to Hayer, this is now being “subverted” by the government to target political opponents.

“A milestone designed to guarantee institutional independence is being weaponized to neutralize democratically elected opposition through politicized enforcement — a direct assault on the democratic values that underpin our European project,” she wrote.

Bulgaria’s government is led by GERB, a member of the European People’s Party.

Тhe EU executive’s assessment of the payment request, submitted late July, is ongoing “in close cooperation with the Bulgarian authorities, and we will issue our opinion in due time,” a Commission spokesperson said.

The spokesperson refused to comment on the role of the Anti-Corruption Commission while the assessment is ongoing.