site.btaCourt Employees Warn against Changes to 2026 State Budget

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Regional Prosecutor's Office Sofia said that a decline in real income is not budgetary discipline, and weakening the most overburdened agencies is not modernization. The statement came as a response to the changes to the 2026 State budget that were proposed in late June.

The Prosecutor's Office pointed out that the budget provides for court employees to begin paying their own social security contributions, while no compensation is provided to maintain the current level of net salaries, which would lead to layoffs. The statement also noted that with a salary of about EUR 850 for a court clerk and an average gross salary in Sofia of about EUR 2,061, a court clerk's pay is approximately 41% of the city’s average.

The Prosecutor’s Office operates with one of the lowest ratios of court staff to prosecutors in the country. There are only 0.88 court clerks per prosecutor, which means that each employee at the Prosecutor’s Office supports more prosecutors, processes more prosecutor's acts, more documents, and a greater administrative workload than is typical for the system. If the staff is reduced further, there is a risk of paralyzing the work of the Prosecutor’s Office. Without court staff, there can be no movement of case files, no normal correspondence, no service to citizens, no adherence to deadlines, and no peaceful working environment for prosecutors.

The statement reads: "We insist that the Regional Prosecutor's Office Sofia be considered separately, based on its actual workload, limited administrative resources, the number of unfilled positions, the lack of candidates, staff turnover, salaries relative to the average wage in Sofia, and the risk of mass resignations."

In an open letter sent to the National Assembly Chair, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Justice, the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee, the Supreme Judicial Council, and the Ombudsman, 441 employees of the Sofia Regional Court said that they are not opposed to reforming the social security system, however, changes should be made only after an objective, comprehensive, and well-founded analysis.

The employees expressed their concern that, during the deliberations on the 2026 budget, public opinion turned against judicial administration staff, which is already affecting their work. The letter reads: "Our request is to be allowed to have normal working conditions, to not have to work amid a constant staff shortage, and to receive adequate and competitive compensation for our work."

The government proposed that civil servants pay their own social security contributions starting August 1, 2026, with the employer covering 80% and the employee 20%, and starting in 2027, the ratio will be 60% to 40%. There are also plans to develop a mechanism to cover the personal social security contributions of other civil servants, including those in the Ministry of the Interior and the armed forces, starting in 2027. Finance Minister Galab Donev stated that these changes will include salary adjustments to ensure that net income remains at current levels.