site.btaBSP Calls Congress in Early April, Proposes Own Pension Reform Plan

BSP Calls Congress in Early April, Propose Own Version of Pension Reform

Sofia, January 25 (BTA) - The National Council of the Bulgarian
Socialist Party (BSP) took a decision to hold its 48th Congress
in the first ten-day period of April, BSP Chairman Mihail
Mikov said. The forum will focus on the upcoming local
elections.

At its Sunday plenum BSP also adopted measures for
organizational strengthening of the party.

The party envisages a change in the media policy: a more
convincing and persuasive presentation of positions and
alternatives, more active use of the social network and actions
for broader communication through a TV channel.

The measures adopted also envisage that the national and local
coalitions will be set up on the basis of principles, criteria
and standards for Left policy.

BSP Deputy Chair Dragomir Stoynev said that BSP is ready with
its own draft of a pension reform, which will be presented
before the social partners at the beginning of February. BSP is
not inclined to accept an increase of the contributory service
and the retirement age, Stoynev commented. In his opinion, the
retirement age should be frozen and flexible forms of
retirement should be introduced.

Last week, Labour and Social Policy Minister Ivaylo Kalfin
unvailed his ideas for a pension reform, including gradual
increase of the retirement age for the most common work Category
1 so that men retire at 65 in 2029, while women be pensioned
off at this age some eight years later, in 2037. The proposal
also envisages that the retirement age for men increases by two
months each year for the first two years, followed by one month
annual increases after that.