The "Radev" cabinet presented its management program on the eve of the first 100 days of its management mandate. Prime Minister Rumen Radev guaranteed that taxes and social security contributions will not change, and social payments will not be withdrawn. However, the new mechanism for determining the minimum wage has sparked controversy that continues to this day. According to the Minister of Labor and Social Policy Natalia Efremova, who is a guest in the studio of "The Day Begins on Sunday", one of the ways to counteract aggression among children is to create an environment in which they can be engaged in sports, creativity and other activities that develop their imagination and build a moral compass.
"Without a doubt. This is the best medicine, I would say, for building a moral compass in our children about what is good, what is bad, what is truth, what is reality, what is virtual reality. So any type of sports activities, activities related to creativity, activities related to developing the imagination of our children in the direction of doing good, is the medicine, as I said, that we need in this difficult situation that we are witnessing," said Efremova.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports can also get involved with its national programs. They are most often financed by the state budget, so that we can support youth centers, and more work with sports clubs, development of these sports clubs, so that we can provide a good and safe environment for our children, the minister pointed out.
Efremova commented on both serious cases from recent weeks – the one in Plovdiv, where children were detained for a serious accident, as well as the case of the child injured by his parent. According to her, the two cases are different, but in both cases a way must be found for the institutions to react more effectively:
"At first glance, from the initial information I have, it is clear that we still have a problem with the conversation between the institutions in the first place, i.e. "We have poor communication, which I will certainly do everything possible to improve from now on," she said.
The minister specified that the case in Plovdiv was a criminal activity, which according to the information available to her was planned and was related to influencing children for a long period.
"This is a criminal activity, which is the case in Plovdiv, which, as far as I have information from the Ministry of Interior services, is a fairly planned activity that has been working with the minds of our children for a long time, so it would have been more difficult for the social services there to take action in the first place. Of course, they could have been better informed. It turns out that in the end, no one from the family environment, from the neighborhood environment, from the educational or social environment has noticed any particular problems in the behavior, which should have been caught in time, because there are tools that modern society has and could be used to prevent this type of interaction and ultimately influence on the child's psyche, "explained Efremova.
In the other case, according to her, the situation is different, since it is about a child who became a victim of cruelty by an adult:
"While in the other case it is about an innocent child who becomes a victim of absolutely unacceptable cruelty by an adult, there the social workers could have done a lot more. Measures that will protect not only this child, but also the entire family, he has brothers and sisters, in time, so that this truly extremely difficult finale of action by an adult towards one of these children is not reached. This is unacceptable for our system", said the minister.
Efremova announced that she will seek answers from both social services and the children themselves:
"In this regard, next week I will first go to Plovdiv to talk to the children from the Children's Council, which is at the State Agency for Child Protection. I also want to hear their opinion, what we can do better for adolescents and to support their better environment. I am also meeting and will talk to the local social services and separately with the State Agency for Child Protection. "With the Social Assistance Agency, we intend to build a specific new action plan to strengthen child protection," she said.
On the eve of the first 100 days of her mandate, the minister also took stock of the work in the social and labor spheres. According to her, the main goal is a change in the philosophy of the system - from passive to active:
"In all cases, the social system must first and foremost be fair, and this is actually the motto under which my team and I developed the "Labor Market and Social Policy" section. This is the most important task - to ensure justice when we work for people and when we ultimately provide help, assistance and support for the most vulnerable groups. I really want, and we have included this in the program, to turn the philosophy of our entire system around and from a passive system, it becomes active, able to provide knowledge and skills to all people, regardless of their social status, their education, their capabilities, even their physical abilities, so that they can be active participants in public life, help themselves, have the opportunity to work, and have their personality built, even when they are children born with a congenital disability, so that they can be educated and trained so that they can be useful to themselves and feel fulfilled," said Efremova.
Among the most controversial topics is the mechanism for determining the minimum wage. The minister emphasized that the previous model was too automatic and did not take into account all factors:
"The mechanism in place so far was extremely automatic, fixed only on one indicator, which does not take into account all the socio-economic criteria that must be taken into account when forming the level of the minimum wage for the country. Since this is a topic about income, a topic about the bread of a very large part of families, and it is not without importance how we reach a certain level of their income, taking into account purchasing power and inflation, so that in the end we ensure exactly what we are talking about - a decent way of life, adequate income even for the least qualified and the lowest paid," she said.
According to Efremova, there are already several clear issues on which the social partners can step in the upcoming talks:
"The topic has actually been discussed for many years. There is quite a big difference. I have been on this topic and in these conversations for many years with a small break in recent months to a year ago. I see a difference at the moment in the way the social partners sit at the negotiating table. At the moment we have a few clear questions as a start from a legal point of view, from which to start, on which criteria to develop this formula. And from here on out, it became clear in our last conversations that the social partners prefer to negotiate, i.e. that we have a mechanism that forms the minimum wage, not an automatic formula. Because both approaches are completely possible. And from here on, I believe that we will have a good conversation and very, very quick success," the minister pointed out.
Efremova did not commit to a specific forecast for the amount of the minimum wage from January 1, 2027, but was categorical that she would not allow it to remain at the current level:
"It is not a good idea to speculate with numbers before we have settled on a relatively objective way of its formation. What I can say, and this is my mandatory task, which I will work on, is that I will not allow it to remain at the current level for this year as a determination. From there on, how far it can go is a matter of calculations that will ultimately provide some objectivity. Objectivity from the point of view of economic opportunities and from the point of view of the social function of the minimum income", said the minister.
Regarding income policy, Efremova linked the growth of wages to productivity, economic growth, investments and the qualification of the workforce:
"Income policy itself as a dynamic cannot be excluded from factors that are related to our productivity in the first place and to the economy we have. The idea is to build an economy with high added value and then incomes will naturally go up. If we do not develop enough investments in the country, high technologies, our income policy will not be able to be high. And in this regard, in order to move income policy forward, the most important thing is to work towards people having higher qualifications," she pointed out.
In relation to the issue of balancing the pension system and the NSSI budget, as well as the possible increase in social security contributions, Efremova specified that she prefers to talk about the social security system, since it is the link between workers and people of retirement age:
"This is the bridge between the generations today, the generations that are currently working, and people who are of retirement age. The insurance system is a very complex organism that requires the commitment of our society at the moment, so that we feel secure and have confidence that in the future our income will be replaced with dignity and we will be able to provide ourselves with a decent life. That is, the better we provide ourselves today, the better we will have our pension insurance in the future, as you want to call it. This is the direction in which we will work. First of all - strengthening control. The control is related to the fight against the shadow economy, undeclared employment, but also to building people's trust that the better they are insured today, the better they will receive their rights today."
According to her, there are other instruments that can be used, including changes in the maximum social security income:
"You saw that there are also slightly softer instruments, such as the maximum social security income being increased instead of the social security itself as a percentage. This is the smoother and smoother transition. There is also a requirement, and I will insist, that employers and unions negotiate so that we can together reach the best balanced solutions. We have also included in the management program another tool to increase the burden of each year of service, social security service, so that we can balance the pressure of the fiscal system itself to have to increase social security contributions."
The minister also commented on the increase in the targeted heating subsidy from 310 to 322 euros, which will be paid in two tranches:
"This was a difficult decision that we had to make in connection with the budgetary possibilities and the attempts to slightly reduce the expenditure part of the budget. That is why we divided it into two parts," she explained.
Efremova expressed hope that the division of the payment would remain for this year only. She indicated that talks are underway with the Ministry of Agriculture about the possibility of people receiving their firewood earlier and the payment being postponed.