site.btaEmployer Organizations Call on President, Ombudsman to Take Measures against Pay Indexation through 2025 Budget Extension

In an open letter published Monday, the Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers (AOBE) calls on the President and the National Ombudsman to take measures within their powers against the part of the 2025-to-2026 Budget Extension Act that indexes salaries in the budget sector, as these texts contradict the Public Finance Act and the Constitution. The AOBE, which brings together the officially recognized representative employers' organizations in Bulgaria, insists that the President return the part of the 2026 Revenue Collection and Expenditure Act which indexes salaries in the budget sector to inflation, and/or for the President and the Ombudsman to refer the matter to the Constitutional Court.

According to the AOBE, in violation of the rules laid down in the Public Finance Act, "probably due to pre-election populism and with a situational majority", the National Assembly has added a one-off indexation for budget sector employees (whose salaries were already indexed for this year at the highest rate in the EU) with the accumulated annual inflation, which, depending on the interpretation and potential re-extension of the budget, could accumulate between BGN 0.5 and 1 billion in new public debt, for which there is no justification and the caretaker government will not be authorized. 

"Such decisions should not be taken by an outgoing parliament in the absence of a parliamentary majority, but by a clear majority that has elected a stable government. The responsibility for such decisions in an election situation remains unclear and vague, and every politician wants to gain support from more voters on the basis of additional privileges for them in the budget, without taking into account financial discipline and responsibility, but only political populism," the letter reads.

According to employer organizations, the budget extension creates a dangerous legal precedent for the arbitrary and unconstitutional adoption of legislation by the National Assembly, which raises serious concerns about the rule of law in the country, as well as for the stability of public finances and the management of the deficit and public debt in the medium and long term.

Last week, the Fiscal Council noted that indexing incomes through a budget extension compromises the principles of budgetary legislation and sets a dangerous precedent in the country's budgetary policy. When voting on the 2026 Revenue Collection and Expenditure Act, the National Assembly approved a proposal submitted by Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria MP Assen Vassilev between the first and second readings, providing for the indexation of the remuneration of budget sector employees who are not on the minimum wage by the rate of annual inflation at the end of 2025.