site.btaEuropean Commission Makes Four Recommendations about Bulgaria's Economy

European Commission Makes Four Recommendations about Bulgaria's Economy

Brussels, May 22 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - The European Commission Monday released its country-specific recommendations for each EU economy, including four recommendations to Bulgaria.

The Commission expects Bulgaria to further improve tax collection and tax compliance, including through a comprehensive set of measures beyond 2017, and to step up enforcement of measures to reduce the extent of the informal economy, in particular undeclared work.

Second, Bulgaria is expected to take follow-up measures on the financial sector reviews, in particular concerning reinsurance contracts, group-level oversight, hard-to-value assets and related-party exposures. It is expected to improve banking and non-banking supervision through the implementation of comprehensive action plans, in close cooperation with European bodies. This country should facilitate the reduction of still high corporate non-performing loans, including by accelerating the reform of the insolvency framework and by promoting a functioning secondary market for non-performing loans.

Third, the Commission wants to see improved targeting of active labour market policies and integration between employment and social services for disadvantaged groups. The provision of quality mainstream education, in particular for Roma, should increase. Bulgaria should also increase health insurance coverage, reduce out-of-pocket payments and address shortages of healthcare professionals. In consultation with social partners, a transparent mechanism should be established for setting the minimum wage. The coverage and adequacy of the minimum income should improve.

The fourth recommendation is about ensuring efficient implementation of the 2014-2020 National Public Procurement Strategy.

Marianne Thyssen, the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, commented according to the report, Bulgaria does quite well in terms of time of waiting for treatment. There is an improvement, but there are also problems, including a high proportion of the population that does not have full health insurance coverage; the costs of medicines and treatments not covered by the public system remain very high; and there are shortages of health care professionals that have an impact on access to health care.

Thyssen also said: "As to undeclared work, it is still a problem and this is not good for the sustainability of the systems." It also makes it impossible for people to participate in lifelong learning, upskilling and skills development.

Valdis Dombrovskis, Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, who is also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, commented that the Structural Reform Support Service is already providing technical assistance to Bulgaria with judicial and law-enforcement reforms, and that further areas of technical assistance are being discussed. This is always done at the request of the Member States. "In the case of Bulgaria, some projects have already been delivered and work on others is continuing. Bulgaria sees this as a useful tool to strengthen its structural reform effort," he said.