The social partners did not reach full agreement on the 2026 Budget. This became clear at a briefing after the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC), Nova TV reports. The partners discussed the draft budgets of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), the budget of the State Social Insurance Fund (SSO) and the state budget.
The draft budget of the SSO was adopted unanimously, but the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions and the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions abstained from supporting the NHIF budget. The state budget received the support of all social partners, except for the AIKB.
"The course from the beginning of next year that we must follow is to untie all public sector payments from the average salary and to look for a smarter way to determine remuneration. In the coming months, Bulgaria must take steps that show a new direction of development – i.e. course towards budget consolidation, deficit reduction and balanced budgets", commented Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev.
Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said that the first draft budget was subjected to a lot of criticism, followed by dialogue, and so the current draft budget excludes the increase in the pension contribution, the increase in the dividend tax and the SUPTO.
„We agreed with the partners that permanently vacant positions in the state administration – nearly 5,500, will be reduced in the period 2026 – 2028”, she also pointed out.
The minister thanked the social partners for the criticism, and according to her, the new budget will enable Bulgaria to enter the eurozone with dignity.
"We have proven that dialogue is the key word", pointed out Social Minister Borislav Gutsanov.
"The fact that the budget for social security was adopted unanimously proves that it is truly social. We made it so that after a 3-year freeze, there was an increase in benefits for the second year of maternity – from 780 to 900 leva. The percentage of the remuneration received by young mothers who returned to work before their child turned 2 years old is also increasing from 50 to 75,”, explained Gutsanov.
He added that the minimum wage will be 620.20 euros. And he stressed that it should increase, since in Bulgaria it is the lowest in the entire European Union.
"Regarding pensions – the “Swiss rule” is retained,” the minister also said.
The Chairman of AIKB Rumen Radev explained that there are nuances regarding the implementation of the commitment to eliminate automatic mechanisms for determining remuneration.
“Our clarification is that currently there are texts in the budget that terminate this mechanism – i.e. they do not apply it for 2026, referring to the relevant specialized laws. We insist that this commitment be fully implemented and that adjustments be made to these laws so that this automatism does not occur”, he added.
With regard to the optimization of state administration and financial management, AIKB is in solidarity with the idea of working to restore the good financial tradition – consolidated budgets, not a budget deficit.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of BIA Dobri Mitev commented that the positive thing from the conversation between the partners is that everyone has seen what the systemic problems and deformations are in entire structures of the state government. He added that once these deformations are eliminated, “there will be no such dramas with the state budget”.
The BIA stated that they support this budget, it must be adopted, otherwise our country will enter the eurozone in a chaotic mode - higher prices, higher debts and less investment. The organization explained that an agreement was reached on effective solutions for the various sectors.
The President of the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions Plamen Dimitrov stated that the current budget should be approved because it gives confidence that with slightly reduced revenues and expenses, with an allowed deficit, we will be able to enter 2026.
“Many myths and legends have been created in recent weeks. However, I will give another reading of this 3% deficit. To finance it, we are taking on debt, which is equal to half of the budget's capital program. We are not financing salaries, pensions, social payments, but the government's national investment intention”, he added.
Regarding the state administration, he commented that one should be careful with the numbers, since there are people behind them.
Dimitrov said that the Confederation of Trade Unions of Bulgaria (CITUB) supported the budget on the condition that BDZ receive the necessary funds, and also that “Bulgarian Posts” receive additional funding. Regarding the 15 million leva for the capital's urban transport - the funds have been secured, he added.
Atanas Katsarchev from the “Podkrepa” Trade Union Confederation pointed out that the budget is a compromise. Regarding income policy, he stated that the condition is that the distribution of amounts for paying labor in the public sector also goes through the unions.
“Demographic policy - not everything we want happened, maternity increased for the second year, but everything else was frozen”, the economist added. The tax and social security policy will not be changed either, Katsarchev also pointed out, but a conversation on these issues should begin at the beginning of the year.
Discussions during the Tripartite Council
The AIKB and CITUB did not support the NHIF budget.
"The prepared draft is consistent with the parameters and assumptions of the consolidated general budget framework and the changes to specific indicators, as the revenue part of the draft budget, together with transfers, is 5,288,592 thousand euros, which is 444 million euros more than the funds for healthcare compared to 2025, which is an increase of 9.2%," said Assoc. Prof. Petko Stefanovski, NHIF Governor.
On Sunday, the NHIF Supervisory Board approved the draft of budget.
"For primary outpatient medical care, an increase of funds by 6.4% is planned, for specialized outpatient care - a growth of 4.7%, for medical-diagnostic activities - a growth of 9.5%, for hospital care - a growth of 10.1%, for medical devices - a growth of 5.7%, for medicines, medical devices and dietary foods for home treatment - a growth of 10.2%", indicated Assoc. Prof. Stefanovski.
"40 million euros are planned for the construction of an electronic health card system, which will allow not only general practitioners to have access to the patient file, but also emergency and specialized care doctors. It will also guarantee the verification of each medical activity," he added. The Fund's reserve is 155,193 million euros, which is 9.3% more than in 2025.
"The Ministry of Health supports the draft law on the NHIF budget for 2026", said the Minister of Health, Assoc. Prof. Silvi Kirilov. According to him, the draft also reflects the proposals made by the Ministry of Health.
"The pledged revenues and transfers create a stable financial framework for ensuring health insurance payments. The growth in expenses by 9.2% compared to this year's funds will make it possible to ensure normal financing of the package of medical activities, guaranteed by the NHIF budget and a balanced distribution of funds for health insurance payments by type, added Minister Kirilov.
The second version of Budget 2026: The Tripartite Council discusses the parameters of the financial framework
The parameters of the project create a stable financial framework for the functioning of the healthcare system, said Yavor Penchev, Chairman of the NHIF Supervisory Board.
"The Ministry of Finance supports the draft NHIF law", Minister Petkova pointed out.
"The Treasury budget continues the tradition of all NHIF budgets so far and we traditionally do not support it, as the expenditure part for hospitals and medicines continues to dominate to a huge extent, and its philosophy should be exactly the opposite – to increase funds for prevention," said Rumen Radev from the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"It is important to have security in the system and to ensure payments over the next few months," said Maria Mincheva, representative of the Bulgarian Industrial Chamber.
"We welcome the dropping of 260 million euros from the project, because we believe that this is a vicious approach that was adopted, since we believe that this will not solve people's problems, there were no estimates of how many people there are, how much their gross salaries would be, and this would have caused a much bigger problem, she added regarding this amount, which was planned for remuneration of doctors without a specialty and healthcare professionals. We need to look for a systematic way to solve the problems in the system," she explained, adding that next year the time has come to look systematically at solving the problems in the healthcare and pension systems.
"Although with reservations, we support the budget because efforts have been made to improve it," said the chairman of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Tsvetan Simeonov. The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry also expressed support for the project, pointing out that it is much safer for doctors without a specialty to receive their money from the Ministry of Health, which can be budgeted predictably every year.
The Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions (CITUB) refrains from supporting the project. "What made us refrain from supporting continues to worry us – the funds in the project decreased by 208 million euros", said the president of the union Plamen Dimitrov.
"There is an increase in the budget of the Ministry of Health, but this does not solve the problem in the system related to doctors and nurses. We do not see the solutions that this budget of the Fund would provide in order to find sustainable progress on the problem of the lack of personnel", he added.
"Rather, our opinion on this budget is "for". The issue of salaries is important and fundamental, the answer to which is not contained in the financing mechanism," said the president of the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions "Podkrepa" Dimitar Manolov. "This does not allow for a sustainable policy. Our health insurance system, mainly for this reason, is on the verge of losing its accessibility, he said, adding that strategic talks should begin, which have been postponed until the next budget each time. This budget has something to be criticized for, but it could have been far worse," Manolov added.
The social partners expressed their support for the draft budget of the State Social Insurance (SSI). The decision was justified with arguments about the financial stability of the system and the need to adopt measures that guarantee its long-term development.
Vesela Karaivanova, manager of the National Social Insurance Institute, presented the main parameters of the budget. She pointed out that the minimum wage for 2026 is 620 euros and 20 cents, and the maximum social security income is 2,300 euros. The expected revenues are 8.4 billion euros, which is about 8.3 percent more than in 2025, and the expenses are planned at 15.3 billion euros, which is 1.3 billion euros more than in the previous year.
Karaivanova specified that the expenses for pensions remain the largest, while maintaining the rule of Article 100 of the Social Security Code, and the pensions granted until December 31, 2025, will be updated from July 1 with a rate between 7 and 8 percent. The average pension in 2026 is expected to reach 541 euros and 20 cents, and the ratio between the average pension and the average social security income will be 53%, or 69% after deducting social security contributions. The expenses for cash benefits and compensations are planned at 1.7 billion euros. The percentage of the child-rearing benefit is changed from 50 to 75%, while the policies for unemployment and temporary disability benefits remain at the levels of 2025. The transfer to cover the shortfall in 2026 is expected to be 6.6 billion leva, an increase of 579 million euros compared to the previous year, which represents 43% of the total expenditure of the Social Insurance Institution.
Minister Gutsanov expressed his support for the project and thanked the social partners for the full unanimity of the Supervisory Board of the National Social Insurance Institution. He stressed the need to discuss the “roadmap“ for the coming years and assured that the roadmap for the development of the pension system will be considered first by the Supervisory Board of the National Social Insurance Institution before being submitted to the relevant committee of the National Assembly.
Minister Petkova also supported the budget and thanked for the partnership with the National Social Insurance Institution and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Rumen Radev stated that the association supports the project, thanking the Bulgarian Industrial Chamber as well.
Maria Mincheva supported the budget and noted that the proposals that do not belong to the social security system were dropped. She emphasized the need for a “roadmap” for legislative amendments and long-term solutions for the sustainability of the funds.
Tsvetan Simeonov expressed his organization's support for the budget.
The Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIB) indicated that a thorough debate was held at the Supervisory Board of the National Social Security Institute, all the organization's notes were accepted and expressed support for the budget, noting the need for further work on the roadmap.
Reneta Koleva, Deputy Minister of Environment and Water, expressed support for the budget, emphasizing that a general agreement was reached on the main parameters and distribution of funds.
Dimitar Manolov supported the budget, expressing concern about the way the roadmap was prepared and emphasizing the need for a careful approach to the pension system. He reminded that pensions must be linked to work activity and highlighted the importance of fairly reporting citizens' social security contributions.
Minister Gutsanov added that the maximum social security income will be increased, while the pension ceiling remains the same, and assured that the changes will be discussed in detail with the Ministry of Finance.