Government’s decision to present draft budget at UNWE draws sharp criticism

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Rumen Radev is due to present the vision and policies underpinning next year’s draft state budget tomorrow in the main auditorium of the University of National and World Economy (UNWE), according to an announcement by the Ministry of Finance. Each minister will publicly outline and defend the key priorities in their respective areas of responsibility.

European Commission to review Bulgaria's excessive deficit procedure in November

The opposition has reacted sharply to the decision to unveil the state’s financial plan at an academic institution rather than at the Council of Ministers or the National Assembly.

Democratic Bulgaria has given the government a 24-hour ultimatum to disclose whether talks have been held on redirecting funds from the second pension pillar to the first. “For us, this is a budget that leads nowhere, and we can hardly wait to see it so that we can dissect it, piece by piece,” said Ivaylo Mirchev.

“Instead of taking political responsibility, they are shifting it onto the academic leadership of UNWE when explaining how people will become poorer next year, how taxes will rise and how doing business will become more difficult,” commented Nikolay Denkov of "We Continue the Change".

Kostadin Kostadinov of Vazrazhdane party described the decision to present the budget at UNWE as “disrespect for Parliament”, arguing that “we are neither a presidential republic, nor a monarchy, nor a dictatorship, but a parliamentary republic”. He confirmed that the governing parties had considered changes to the second pension pillar but had abandoned the idea following the threat of protests. In principle, Vazrazhdane supports the idea of limiting the funds managed by private pension funds.

Government denies plans to divert private pension contributions to state system

“Against the backdrop of the expected budget presentation, we have heard more and more lies in recent weeks, some of which have also been disproved by documents from the European Commission. We can see that what is being presented as a social budget is actually hitting the most vulnerable members of society,” said Atidzhe Alieva of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), describing the upcoming event at UNWE as “a disregard for parliamentarism”.

Edited by Diana Tsankova