site.btaVazrazhdane Calls for Development of National Strategy Activating Country's Labour Reserve

A national strategy should be developed to activate the country's labor reserve through education and incentives for the return of emigrants and policies for the inclusion of inactive groups, insisted Vazrazhdane MP Dimo Drenchev in a statement on behalf of the parliamentary group on Thursday. It also calls for a long-term vision for investment in automation and robotization, as well as a significant reduction in the public sector.

The declaration was prompted by a May statement by Deputy Prime Minister Grozdan Karadjov during a national discussion on access to the labor market for third-country workers - challenges and solutions - Vazrazhdane quotes Karadjov as saying that Government proposes that up to 50% of the staff of a given company can be foreigners. 

"We insist that this proposal be withdrawn immediately and that quotas for the import of workers from third countries be limited and returned to a level of up to 10% of the staff of a company," Drenchev said. 

According to Vazrazhdane, this is a fundamental change that could permanently transform the country's socio-economic model. The party also believes that this is an opportunity to open the door to over a million workers from countries outside the European Union.

The proposal is an attempt at demographic and economic replacement of the Bulgarian population, the statement claims. 

According to Drenchev, the experience of recent years is clear – the import of workers into Bulgaria is growing rapidly: from 10,000 in 2021 to over 50,000 to date, and yet the shortage is not decreasing. "Young Bulgarians are losing motivation and emigrating," said the MP.

According to data from the National Statistical Institute cited by him, young people and lower-skilled groups in Bulgaria are experiencing a decline in employment. The figures show that from the second quarter of 2022 to the second quarter of this year, the employment rate among young people aged 15 to 29 has fallen by more than 5 percentage points, Dimo Drenchev said. According to NSI data quoted by him, there are over 85,000 people in Bulgaria who are outside the labor market but say they want to work.

"There is also a huge diaspora of 2 million people who would return if they were offered suitable conditions," the MP believes. According to him, the net contribution to the budget of migrants from countries outside the EU is negative.