site.btaParliament Adopts 2026 State Budget Framework

Parliament adopted the 2026 State Budget framework, including a 5.7% deficit, at second reading on Friday. The vote was 125 to 84, with no abstentions.

The opposition's proposals to amend the revenue and expenditure sections of this year's State Budget Bill were rejected.

MPs adopted the budgets of the judiciary, the National Assembly, the President's administration, the Council of Ministers, the Bulgarian National Audit Office, the Constitutional Court, the Ombudsman, individual ministries, State agencies and commissions.

A proposal by Vazrazhdane MP Angel Georgiev to redirect EUR 17 million earmarked for Ukraine in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs budget to Bulgarian communities abroad and "not give Ukraine a single cent" was rejected.

"I must remind Progressive Bulgaria of a comment Prime Minister Rumen Radev made several weeks ago, when he said that no money would be provided to Ukraine this year. Yet what do we see in the budget? EUR 17 million for Ukraine," Georgiev said. "Given the current budget situation, it is not normal to keep making excuses about everything, from pensioners to mothers, saying there is never any money, only to suddenly find that there is money for Ukraine," Georgiev added. He requested another vote, but the proposal was rejected again.

Proposals by GERB-UDF, Continue the Change (CC) and Vazrazhdane for additional funding to increase school student scholarships were also rejected. During Thursday's debate on the bill, the three political formations called for an increase in the scholarships, whose minimum amount of BGN 21, or EUR 10, was set in 1999.

A proposal by Progressive Bulgaria MP Rumen Milanov and a group of MPs from other parliamentary groups to increase the State Agency for Technical Operations budget by more than EUR 2 million was also rejected in a repeat vote. The funding was intended for post-warranty maintenance and procurement of operational equipment, the provision of technical resources and a major overhaul of the agency's administrative building complex in Sofia.

The budgets of the Council for Electronic Media, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, the Bulgarian News Agency and the municipalities were approved.

MPs continued voting at second reading on the remaining provisions of the 2026 State Budget Bill. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Galab Donev was present in the plenary chamber.