site.btaPM Radev Says Government Working to Curb Shadow Economy, Boost Employment

The Government is working to increase economic transparency, boost production and employment, and curb the shadow economy, Prime Minister Rumen Radev told Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) leaders, the Cabinet press service said Tuesday. Radev was speaking during a working meeting with the leadership of CITUB, held at the Council of Ministers at the union’s initiative.

Radev said the Government is moving to stabilize the State while urgently tackling problems that had accumulated over the years.

At the meeting, CITUB raised a range of issues, including the 2026 State Budget, public-sector pay policy, worrying data showing a decline in industrial production, unresolved problems in energy, discrepancies between Bulgarian labour legislation and EU law, and long-standing problems in transport, agriculture and other sectors.

CITUB cited the slow transformation of the Bulgarian economy as a key problem for the country. The union said the economy should rely less on the production and export of raw materials and more on high value-added products.

In this context, Radev said the Government was working to deliver genuine modernization of the Bulgarian economy and pointed to steps by the Ministry of Defence to renegotiate existing contracts to expand industrial cooperation and technology transfer to Bulgaria. Radev said Government policy was to ensure that more Bulgarian companies become an integral part of supply chains under all contracts concluded by the State.

CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov thanked Radev for the constructive dialogue during his term as president, saying Radev had worked consistently and actively during that period to protect workers’ rights and key sectors of the Bulgarian economy. Dimitrov also thanked the Government for the constructive dialogue launched in the Cabinet’s first days.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Galab Donev, Minister of Labour and Social Policy Nataliya Efremova, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Ivan Shishkov, Minister of Transport and Communications Georgi Peev, Minister of Agriculture and Food Plamen Abrovski, Deputy Minister of Energy Kiril Temelkov, and Deputy Minister of Economy, Investments and Industry Krasimir Yakimov also attended the meeting.

CITUB was represented by President Plamen Dimitrov, Vice Presidents Ognyan Atanasov and Todor Kapitanov, and Chief Economist and Director of the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research, Education and Training Lyuboslav Kostov.

Radev has previously linked efforts to curb the informal economy and tax evasion to better accounting, greater transparency and stronger institutional oversight. Donev has also said fiscal consolidation should combine spending restraint with revenue measures while keeping tax and social security rates unchanged, and has pointed to the shadow economy as a source of additional budget revenue. The European Commission has likewise urged Bulgaria to strengthen tax collection, combat the shadow economy and improve the fairness of its tax system.