Bulgarian Parliament approves draft 2026 Budget package at first reading
Bulgaria’s National Assembly passed the 2026 Budget Act at first reading on November 21, with 131 MPs in favour and 87 opposed.
The Budget was backed by the three parliamentary groups in the government coalition – GERB-UDF, Bulgarian Socialist Party-United Left and populist ITN, as well as several non-aligned MPs and Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms-New Beginning, which supports the minority government of Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov without being formally part of the ruling coalition.
The votes against came from We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, pro-Russian Vuzrazhdane, Ahmed Dogan’s loyalists of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms and nationalist-populist Mech. MPs for populist party Velichie did not take part in the vote.
A day earlier, MPs passed at first reading the separate social security and healthcare funds’ budget bills.
Bulgaria’s 2026 Budget package, the first fully denominated in euro, owing to imminent adoption of the common European currency on January 1, has been delayed by opposition from employer groups, who refused to participate in meetings with trade unions and the government, a tripartite format that is part of the budgetary process, but only in a consultative role.
To bring forward the second reading of the package, MPs also approved a motion to shorten the habitual two-week period for tabling amendments to just three days, meaning that the bills could be discussed in committee as early as next week.
The 2026 Budget package tabled by the Cabinet last week envisions a consolidated fiscal programme with revenues of 52.44 billion euro and 55.09 billion euro in spending, and a Budget deficit estimated at 3.65 billion euro in real terms, or three per cent of gross domestic product.
The economic growth target set in the Budget is 2.7 per cent and the debt ceiling is set at 37.6 billion euro, with the government allowed to take on up to 10.44 billion euro in new debt in 2026. This figure includes borrowing up to 3.26 billion euro under EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) mechanism for investment in defence capabilities.
(Photo: parliament.bg)
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