site.btaParliament to Debate Withdrawing 2026 Draft Budgets

Parliament’s plenary sitting on Wednesday will debate a draft decision to withdraw the 2026 draft State budget and the draft budgets of the State Social Insurance (SSI) and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), according to the National Assembly’s draft agenda.

The draft decision was submitted by Kostadin Angelov of GERB–UDF, Dragomir Stoynev of BSP–United Left and Toshko Yordanov of There Is Such a People (TISP). It is listed as the third item on the proposed agenda. The Council of Ministers requested that the National Assembly withdraw the three draft budgets on Tuesday, following a night of protests on Monday.

Citizens protested against the 2026 draft budget in Sofia and in other cities across the country. The protest was organized by Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). In Sofia, protesters filled the square in front of the President’s administration, the National Assembly and the Council of Ministers. There were disturbances in the capital in the late hours of Monday evening.

Wednesday is the first Wednesday of the month and, under the National Assembly’s Rules of Procedure, parliamentary groups may propose items that must be included in the plenary sitting’s agenda. A total of five such proposals have been incorporated into Wednesday’s programme. They were submitted by Vazrazhdane, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Beginning, TISP, Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh) and CC-DB.

Vazrazhdane proposes that MPs consider the proposal submitted by President Rumen Radev on May 12, 2025, to hold a national referendum on introducing the euro in 2026. The proposal was filed in May 2025, then National Assembly chair Nataliya Kiselova rejected it, arguing that it is inadmissible because it is inconsistent with the Constitution, the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, Bulgaria's EU Accession Treaty, the Act concerning the conditions of accession, and the Direct Citizen Participation in State and Local Government Act. At the end of May, President Radev petitioned the Constitutional Court to nullify Kiselova's refusal to include the proposal in Parliament's agenda. On November 18, the Constitutional Court ruled that the National Assembly Chair does not have the competence to determine the admissibility of a national referendum and to reject a proposal made by an entity empowered by the law.

MRF – New Beginning has tabled a draft decision on granting the acting Prosecutor General permission to initiate criminal proceedings against Vazrazhdane MP Yordan Todorov.

TISP’s proposal concerns the draft decision to withdraw the State, NHIF and SSI draft budgets for 2026.

MECh proposes that the National Assembly debate at first reading a Gambling Bill submitted by Hristo Rastashki (MECh) and a group of MPs.

CC-DB proposes a hearing of Interior Minister Daniel Mitov on the actions and inaction of the Ministry of Interior and the Sofia Directorate of Interior during and after the mass protest in Sofia on December 1, 2025.

The draft agenda for Thursday places first the election of a Director General of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). At a hearing in the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture and the Media last week, current BTA Director General and candidate for a second term, Kiril Valchev, who is running unopposed, presented his vision for BTA's development until 2030.