site.btaMedia Review: June 18

No single topic dominates Thursday's news media.

ECONOMY

Speaking on Nova TV's morning show, former economy minister Nikolay Vassilev criticized the government, arguing that it had failed to present any meaningful ideas for the budget. He said annual spending needed to be reduced by some EUR 6 billion. Vassilev maintained that Bulgaria does not have an inflation problem. In his view, the country ranks first in the euro area in terms of inflation growth for three main reasons: misguided fiscal policy, characterized by excessive borrowing and budget deficits; the effects of the war, including higher oil prices; and substantial income growth. He also described as a weakness the government's decision to cap new borrowing at EUR 3.8 billion. The economist stressed the need to reduce the size of the state administration and pursue broader restructuring across the public sector.

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Citing preliminary Eurostat data, Capital.bg writes that Bulgaria has now surpassed three EU Member States in terms of living standards. Bulgaria recorded the largest improvement in well-being among EU countries in 2025. Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) increased by 4 percentage points last year and now stands at 77% of the EU average. While Bulgaria was the lowest-ranked country in the EU on this indicator until 2022, it now exceeds the levels of Hungary, Latvia, and Estonia, and has caught up with Slovakia. Over the past decade, Bulgaria has posted the second-largest increase in AIC in the EU. Since 2015, the figure has risen by 22 percentage points, from 55% to 77% of the EU average. Bulgaria’s 2025 result is not surprising given the strong growth in consumption, which last year recorded its largest increase in recent years and served as the main driver of economic growth. Bulgaria’s stronger performance was likely aided by the comparatively slower growth of the overall EU average, as several of Europe’s leading economies have been stagnating. 

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In an interview with 24 Chasa, Boyan Mitrakiev, Executive Director of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, says that public-sector employees enjoy advantages over workers in the private sector and that the state administration has become excessively large. Mitrakiev strongly opposes mechanisms that automatically increase public-sector salaries. He adds that his organization will advocate cutting vacant positions in the public administration, arguing that the way these positions are funded has led to the "absurd situation in which some civil servants receive five-figure salaries in euros."

MOTORCYCLE INSURANCE

Dnevnik.bg reports on an upcoming protest of motorcyclists in downtown Sofia. Motorcyclists are demanding the resignations of the leadership of the Commission for Consumer Protection and the Financial Supervision Commission, arguing that these bodies allowed the price of mandatory third-party liability motor insurance to rise sharply. The protesters want all insurance companies to start offering seasonal insurance policies with coverage periods shorter than one year. The media outlet recalls that earlier this week, they presented their demands to Parliament’s Committee on Economic Policy, Investments and Industry and were promised that the Financial Supervision Commission would establish a working group to propose solutions that would address their concerns. Representatives of the motorcycle clubs, however, said they do not trust the current leadership of the commissions.

Trud has an interview with Krassimir Pargov, coordinator of nationwide motorcyclists' protests, who argued that motorcycle insurance premiums in Bulgaria have risen dramatically through a process that lacks transparency and meaningful regulatory oversight. He said that the protest scheduled for Friday would be joined by thousands of motorcyclists. He did not provide an exact figure, saying that while 95 motorcycle clubs had confirmed their participation, many unaffiliated riders were also expected to take part in the protest. Pargov added that motorcycle convoys would arrive from different parts of the country and gather at three main meeting points before entering the capital.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

24 Chasa leads with a story saying that electric vehicles (EVs) are approaching a price point at which they become economically attractive for Bulgarians, particularly for city driving and for owners who can charge their vehicles at home. Entry-level EVs are now available in Bulgaria for less than EUR 25,000, with more low-cost models expected to enter the market in the following months. According to the daily, EV owners also benefit from low operating costs, exemption from the annual vehicle tax, free parking in paid urban parking zones, and lower maintenance expenses compared with gasoline-powered cars.

In another story, the daily also reports that the European Union wants to push companies with more than 250 employees to purchase more EVs by introducing set quotas. Estimates show that company cars account for up to 60% of all newly registered vehicles in Europe. The idea is that the rapid electrification of corporate fleets will automatically increase the supply of more affordable EVs on the second-hand car market. Citing data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the daily notes that the number of companies in Bulgaria with more than 250 employees that would be affected by the changes is currently 758.

JUSTICE

Mediapool.bg writes that the parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs Wednesday rejected a proposal by Continue the Change (CC) that would have allowed organizations outside Parliament to nominate members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). Under the proposal, nominations would no longer have been made exclusively by parties represented in Parliament, as is currently the case.

Speaking on bTV’s morning show, CC's Stoyu Stoev, Deputy Chair of Parliament and a member of the Committee, commented on the outcome of Wednesday’s committee meeting, during which amendments to the Judiciary System Act were discussed at second reading. Stoev believes that the amendments submitted between the first and second readings do not provide sufficient guarantees for an independent selection process for the new SJC and create conditions for maintaining political influence over the body responsible for judicial appointments. He expressed concern that key reforms related to the way SJC members are elected and efforts to limit political interference had been left out of the final version of the legislation.

NORTH MACEDONIA

Mediapool.bg reported that the European Parliament (EP) Wednesday voted on an annual report on North Macedonia's progress toward EU membership, retaining a provision calling for progress in resolving disputed historical issues. "North Macedonia ran an intensive diplomatic campaign. Rapporteur Thomas Waitz, an Austrian MEP from the Greens, proposed the removal of a passage that strongly urges the Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission on Historical and Educational Issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia - established under the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation - to achieve clear and tangible results," the media outlet writes. The proposal was rejected by 338 MEPs, while 126 MEPs supported it. The work of the joint commission has effectively been stalled in recent years and has produced no results, Mediapool.bg adds.

Speaking on Bulgarian National Television's (BNT) morning show, Naoum Kaytchev, deputy chair of the Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission on Historical and Educational Issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, said: "In 2019, the leadership of North Macedonia made a strategic decision not to implement the Treaty of Friendship and Good-Neighbourliness in the part that stipulates that the shared history of the two countries and their peoples is what connects them." Also on BNT, MEP Stanislav Stoyanov said that "Bulgaria has pursued an approach that has failed to deliver the desired results for many years." "Bulgaria has taken a soft approach, and we can see that the outcome has not been good. Despite Bulgaria's goodwill and the positive steps we have taken over the years, we are still portrayed as an enemy of the people of North Macedonia, which is a downright falsehood," he added.

In an interview with Bulgarian National Radio, Maria Simeonova, Head of the Sofia office at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that Bulgaria has missed the opportunity to lead the conversation on EU enlargement in the Western Balkans. She noted that Bulgaria was the country driving this agenda in 2018. "That changed with the veto on North Macedonia. Regardless of how reasonable the veto may seem to us, or how reasonable the French proposal may appear, Bulgarian diplomacy must be accompanied by active public diplomacy and continuous engagement, rather than retreating into the comfort of a foreign policy stance backed by the other 26 EU Member States. I would describe this approach as a passive foreign policy," Simeonova said. Bulgaria needs to adopt a bolder role—one that reflects the expectations placed on an EU Member State from this region. The country has both the capacity and the responsibility to play such a role, she added. "Rebuilding its reputation as a supporter of the Western Balkans, however, will take time. The dispute with North Macedonia did damage Bulgaria’s image in Brussels when it comes to this issue," she said.