Bulgaria is welcoming its first budget as a member of the eurozone amid mass protests and serious public tension. This was commented on bTV by European Commissioner and former Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva. According to her, our country has “entered the eurozone with a budget that is in itself a protest“.
Kuneva emphasized that for the first time Bulgaria is preparing a budget without what the currency board imposed on us, which is “a new moment and a new responsibility“. She reminded that the European Commission has already warned Sofia to be careful after the draft budget sparked a number of criticisms.
“Currently, we ourselves choose whether to raise the debt and how to increase revenues. This requires a different level of responsibility. The Commission said “be careful“, and the government should have heard this signal“, she commented.
According to Kuneva, it is not true that people are protesting against the very entry into the eurozone: “Bulgarians rather support this process. They do not accept the way the budget is prepared.“
Kuneva sharply criticized the lack of transparency and interaction in the preparation of the budget.
“The fiscal council cannot declare that it is collecting information from the press because no one has given it the budget. The trilateral council cannot leave the room. This is a problem not only of numbers – this is a problem for democracy“, she stressed.
According to her, in areas such as education, security and administration, no reforms are seen, but only “inflation of money without change“.
According to the former European Commissioner, the crisis in budget policy is part of a larger problem – the lack of a clear positioning of Bulgaria in the European process.
Kuneva noted that the EU is entering a period of serious reformatting – with a new focus on defense, geopolitics, technology and enlargement. “Priorities are changing. There will not be as much money for cohesion. And we are not ready for this transformation.“
According to Kuneva, the argument that this is “the only possible budget“, because several parties are in power, cannot justify the lack of vision.