site.btaProposed State Budget Needs Major Correction on Expenditure Side – CC Co-leader Vassilev

The expenditure side of the draft state budget for 2025 needs a major correction, Continue the Change (CC) Co-leader and former finance minister Assen Vassilev told journalists on Saturday.

Vassilev argued: "What burdens the budget is not the social measures. The budget is burdened mainly by the fact that while inflation is forecast at 2.5%, the 'Personnel' item in the scheme, that is, the wages of the entire public administration, will be raised by 35%. It is normal for wage growth to outstrip inflation as we need to catch up with [the more developed part of] Europe and provide for real income growth, but it would be enough to increase wages at a rate that is three to four times the rate of inflation, which would mean a pay rise of around 10%."

He went on to say that the Council of Ministers resources "which are not accounted for" are set to be increased by BGN 1.6 billion. His guess is that the state budget scheme was drawn up without the Finance Minister taking unpopular political decisions. "Any upward adjustments should be within reasonable limits," Vassilev insisted. "When you compile a budget scheme, you need to strike a balance between all systems."

Asked to comment on GERB leader Boyko Borissov's words that all parties are behaving as in an election campaign, Vassilev said: "Our conduct is highly consistent. By having a discussion on the budget, we are doing exactly the opposite of an election campaign."

He stressed that the GERB leader, whose party won the latest parliamentary elections, should sign the declaration proposed by CC if he wants to hold talks with them on forming the next government. "There can be no talks unless he signs it," he said, adding that it is necessary to assume a commitment in writing that the judicial power bill and the bills under the Recovery and Resilience Plan will pass and that Borislav Sarafov will be stopped from being elected as prosecutor general by an expired Supreme Judicial Council.

The National Assembly should not take a recess between Christmas and New Year's Eve because it is necessary to ensure that the work on adopting the budget proceeds as quickly as possible and the parliamentary committees are elected as soon as the Assembly's rules of procedure are adopted, he said. The National Assembly Presidents' Council has considered adopting the rules of procedure by December 17 and electing the parliamentary committees on December 18. "We are in favour of holding a sitting every day, including during the weekend, if necessary, because it is crucial to adopt the budget this year - if possible at all," Vassilev said.

He spoke to journalists in Sofia on his way to a national meeting of mayors and municipal councillors from CC.