DB calls for no cuts to the budgets of cultural institutions

''Democratic Bulgaria” (DB) categorically objects to the automatic 10% reduction in cultural funding. This is not a reform but an “across-the-board” accounting measure that punishes one of the most underfunded sectors in the country'', the opposition coalition says in a statement.

''The day after the holiday of education and culture, May 24, libraries, theatres, community centres and other cultural institutions have received instructions to reduce their budgets to 90% of last year’s level. This is happening in a sector where salaries are already close to the minimum, staff numbers are declining, buildings are deteriorating, and access to culture remains unequal for a large part of Bulgarian citizens'', says ''Democratic Bulgaria.

“Democratic Bulgaria” emphasizes that culture is not an expense but an investment in knowledge, society, the economy and the future, and that the EU recommends cultural funding to be 1% of state expenditures (currently it is around 0.6%), BTA reports.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov