site.btaMedia Review: May 27

PROTESTS OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS

“We need to improve access to medical services and healthcare. It is true that if fake hospital admissions are prevented, there will be money for medics' salaries,” said MP Vasil Pandov of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria on Bulgarian National Radio. Pandov served as chef of cabinet of Health Minister Asena Serbezova in the government of Kiril Petkov.

"There are a number of measures that could lead to better spending of resources. There is open resistance of the ruling majority to accept this reform for and private hospitals to buy medicines through public procurement. The provision was adopted at first reading after the Bulgarian Socialist Party from the ruling majority supported it. I am sceptical that it will be adopted conclusively," Pandov said.

He said that only 150,000 of the 6 million people with health insurance use the e-health mobile app. He said he was perplexed why Parliament rejected the proposal to notify the patient of every check-up and hospitalization by text from the National Health Insurance Fund.

According to him, this notification will cost about a million to the budget, but it will save millions.

"The problems in healthcare are not new, the system has been without adequate controls for decades," he explained.

Pandov believes that the discontent of medical professionals with low pay is legitimate.

"From BGN 2.6 billion in 2022, the budget has risen to over BGN 4 billion and inflation is far lower than the increase in the NHS budget. Clinical pathways have increased by around 45% . The money for hospital care and clinical pathways is growing, but the salaries of medical professionals are not, because they are not well managed."
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On Monday medical professionals held protests in six major Bulgarian cities: Sofia, Burgas, Varna, Pleven, Plovdiv and Stara Zagora, which are also medical centers, with demands for decent working conditions and decent pay.

"The protest is a last attempt to be heard before effective strike action! From now on the responsibility will be on the politicians and those who manage the health system," said Maya Ilieva, chairwoman of the Union of Bulgarian Medical Specialists, just before the protests, quoted by TrudNews.bg.

"The main demand of the protest was that the basic gross salary of young doctors and trainee doctors should be linked to the minimum wage and be 3.5 times the minimum wage (BGN 1,077). This will ensure that when the minimum wage changes, the basic salary of young doctors will also change," explained Kalina Bozhilova, a 6th year trainee doctor.

Maya Ilieva recalled that the basic salaries of medical specialists (nurses, midwives, lab technicians, etc.) are between BGN 1,200 and 1,800.

"There is no interest among the young - to study for four years and receive a salary of BGN 1,200 at the end. This profession is dying, even professionals with education and experience are being retrained. At the moment, there are 23,000 people working and Bulgarian healthcare needs another 30,000. 95% of medical specialists work in more than one job. And the workload leads to fatigue and mistakes in work.

"We demand the immediate implementation of the wage increase. There is no time to wait. It will lead to the closure of wards and even hospitals due to lack of staff," Ilieva is adamant.

She announced that a meeting is to be held in the parliamentary health committee where solutions to the problems will be specified.

"We are fed up with promises. We are not only protesting for salaries. There should be a policy to recruit staff in the system - to keep the specialists working and attract new ones. If it comes to effective protests, we expect support from doctors and students, but also from the public," Maya Ilieva added.

At the end of last week, the Union of Bulgarian Medical Specialists demanded wages fixed at 150% of the average wage and better working conditions. 

Meanwhile, the two major trade union confederations in the country warned that they would take industrial action unless the Health Minister convenes in early June a council to start negotiations on a new collective labour agreement. For more than a year, they have been insisting on the resumption of negotiations for the conclusion of a new agreement in the sector.

ENERGY COMPENSATION FOR BUSINESSES

Sega.bg writes that the industry has demanded higher electricity compensation for this year

In an open letter to the Prime Minister, the Energy Minister and the National Assembly, the Bulgarian Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers (BFIEC) has demanded that support from the electricity system security fund is disbursed when electricity prices exceed BGN 120/MWh.

This is lower by BGN 60 than the effective threshold of BGN 180/MWh in the period from 1 July 2024 to 31 March 2025 and which, according to the industry, is insufficient.

In addition, businesses are concerned that a new mechanism to compensate them for high electricity costs has not come into force from 1 April. Under the 2025 State Budget Act, electricity producers and traders still have to make contributions to the energy security fund to compensate non-domestic electricity consumers.

In response, Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov said that within two or three weeks a report will be ready with all possible scenarios and available funds to continue support for business. 

Stankov said that his personal view is for the following approach - to pay compensation to the heavy industry that guarantees jobs and preservation of markets both in Europe and on other continents. “We should also have an automatic mechanism that protects everyone - from the hairdresser to the baker to the smallest producer," the Minister explained, quoted by BTA.

From the Minister's words it was understood that a second threshold for paying compensation for all companies is being considered and it is fixed at BGN 220/MWh. In this way, households will be protected from rising prices of goods and services, Stankov said.

Since 2021 the Bulgarian businesses have received in electricity compensation nearly BGN 6 billion.

In the letter, businesses also point out that since the beginning of 2025, the price of electricity on the Day Ahead market in Bulgaria is EUR 115.41/MWh, while in Germany it is EUR 98.63/MWh and in France – EUR 75.62/MWh. In addition, long-term contracting mechanisms and various concessions for the price of electricity for the energy-intensive industry were in place in these countries. "In Germany, for example, the share of short-term trading is about 50%, while in Bulgaria it exceeds 90%," the BFIEC said, but did not explain why companies that are large consumers of electricity do not conclude long-term contracts, but buy electricity on the day-ahead segment of the exchange. They give another example of France, where a mechanism is in place where industry buys electricity at a lower price of EUR 42/MWh.

Already in February, the Ministry of Energy started talks with employer organizations to adopt a new compensation mechanism for electricity for businesses after the expiry of the last one at the end of March.

EU FAST CORRIDORS

Sega.bg quotes Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov as saying that we must be ready to deal with long-term instability in the Black Sea. He raised the issue of fast military corridors through Bulgaria at a forum on security in the Black Sea and the Balkan Region in Bucharest.

Zapryanov highlighted the strategic importance of the construction of the Pan-European Corridor VIII linking Italy, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania, as well as the third bridge over the Danube connecting Ruse and Giurgiu as part of a priority corridor connecting the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. He also highlighted the corridor between Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkiye. These projects will contribute not only to strengthening the deterrence and defence of NATO's Eastern flank, but also to the economic development of the Black Sea region, Zapryanov said.

ANALYSIS

According to a 24 Chasa analysis, the state has paid nearly BGN 6 billion for unearned pensions. This amount has been distributed over 10 years, according to a check in the yearbooks of the National Social Security Institute.

The monthly cost of paying the minimum pensions is just over BGN 117 million. This was also the amount of as of May last year.

A record spending was made in 2023, when 1.4 billion was given on an extraordinary basis so that 795,228 people could receive the minimum pension payment.

The top-up from taxes is necessary because the minimum pension is "unearned" - i.e. its amount is higher than the amount determined by the contributions paid by the person.

It came to this after various governments over the years have raised the minimum amounts ahead of schedule of pensions. Between 2020 and 2024, they have risen significantly - from EUR 250 at the end of 2020 to EUR 580.57 now, or more than twice as high (132%). This also affects the minimum amounts of other pensions. The increase in the minimum amounts of pensions for labour activity is taking place at a faster pace, outpacing the growth of pensions above the minimum, updated and recalculated.

Significant increases have also been recorded in the old-age pension and the supplements to pensions linked to its amount (from BGN 141.63 on 1 July 2020 to BGN 307.07 now, or an increase 116% over the last 5 years).

Now almost one in three pensioners receives a pension that is larger than they actually earned. And half of all pensioners receive the minimum. Someone who has been on the minimum wage for their entire working career and retired on 1 January 2024, with 40 years of third-category work, may not even reach the amount of the minimum wage. Realistically, they will receive a much larger replacement of his last working income compared to someone who retired under exactly the same conditions but was insured on the average contributory income.

The number of people for whom a supplementary payment is made also changed to 795,228 people in 2023 against 485,882 in 2014. At the same time, however costs for them have increased from 16.88 million to over 117 million per month. And this year the deficit of the National Social Security Institute is expected to be BGN 11.7 billion.

POLITICS

"In the final stretch of Bulgaria’s admission to the euro area, President Rumen Radev is working like an ordinary Russian troll," Atanas Atanasov, MP of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria said, speaking on the morning programme of bTV. He explained that the head of State is surrounded by people who work for the Russians and suggest certain moves. "It is through these channels that his 'button' is pressed, somewhere far away from Moscow, and a plan is set in motion," Atanasov added.

He argued that Radev's statements, which create public sentiment against the adoption of the euro, are enough to move for his impeachment. "The question is whether there are enough MPs who would take such a step," Atanasov stressed.

BULGARIAN JOURNALIST WITH CONNECTIONS TO GRU

On the back of a scandal involving six Bulgarians based in the UK, who have been spying for Russia, investigative journalist Christo Grozev revealed on Bulgarian television that a Bulgarian journalist has been following orders of the Russian intelligence.

"I am working on a new investigation that will be published tomorrow. It is about the hacking department of GRU, Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, and there is a Bulgarian connection,” he said. He added that the Bulgarian connection is linked to the unit for spreading disinformation in the department.

It is about a Bulgarian journalist who since 2019 has purposefully created publications with disinformation aimed at creating anti-European and anti-American sentiment.