site.btaEmployers Support Changes to 2026 Budget

Employer organizations support the changes made to the 2026 state budget, stressing the need to eliminate automatic mechanisms for determining wages, strengthen financial discipline, streamline the administration, and support investments and innovations. This transpired at a news briefing after a meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation on Monday.

The Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, Rumen Radev, said that employer organizations support the positive changes made to the state budget. Among them are the two-percentage-point increase in pension contributions and the changes to the tax on dividends and liquidation shares.

“The government fulfilled its commitment to remove the automatic mechanisms for determining remuneration,” Radev said. He added that the 2026 Budget Bill contains provisions that terminate the application of this mechanism for the next year, but full implementation of the commitment also requires amendments to other laws. “When this is completed, you will have our full support,” he said.

Of the management of public finances, the optimization of the administration, and the control of external debt, employers rallied around the position of Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev on restoring financial traditions and striving for consolidated budgets and fiscal stability.

The Chairman of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Industrial Association, Dobri Mitrev, said that the unity between employers and trade unions is an important sign of their shared goal—protecting the interests of Bulgarian enterprises and workers in the country. “Our unity shows that the budget can be reviewed and improved. We see the systemic problems and distortions that need to be addressed at the beginning of next year in order to have more effective budgets in the future,” he said.

Boyan Nikolayev Mitrakiev, Deputy Executive Director of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, said that they have effective solutions for almost all the challenges facing people, from young doctors to the IT and automotive sectors, especially in the context of Europe’s recession. “We are preserving the tax and social security system and moving forward with calm and determination,” Mitrakiev said.