A new dispute over the future of the second pension pillar has erupted between the government and the opposition after Ivaylo Mirchev said that the Finance Ministry had proposed to the European Commission that part of pension contributions be redirected to the National Social Security Institute. According to him, the proposal was made in October by Finance Minister Galab Donev.
Ivaylo Mirchev, co-chairman of Yes, Bulgaria, presented an EC document dated October 15. The document makes it clear that Rumen Radev wanted to target pensions, the MP said.
Mirchev claims that the proposal concerned 3% of the contributions to the second pillar. Earlier, the opposition had spoken of an option whereby the mandatory contribution of 5% would be reduced to 2.5%, with the remaining 2.5 percentage points going to the National Social Security Institute. The difference between the two figures has not been publicly explained.
„While the prime minister claimed that he was waging a tough battle for social payments and pensions, he was trying to find a way to lay his hands on pensions, while the European Commission defended the interests of pensioners,“ Mirchev said, as quoted by BNT.
Radev and the Finance Ministry deny the claims
Prime Minister Rumen Radev rejected claims that the cabinet had planned to use funds from individual accounts in private pension funds. „It is time for some politicians to realise that the election campaign is over, and that the manipulations should end with it,“ he said at the beginning of the Council of Ministers meeting.
The Finance Ministry also described the information as untrue. In a statement dated November 3, the ministry said that claims of an upcoming reform of the second pension pillar „do not correspond to the truth“.
Konstantin Prodanov, chairman of the parliamentary Budget Committee and a member of Progressive Bulgaria, said that the transfer of contributions to the National Social Security Institute „is not happening, is not planned and has not been planned“. According to him, the information being circulated is fake news.
Correspondence with the EC has not yet been made public
In response, Mirchev called for the letters exchanged between the Finance Ministry and the European Commission to be published. According to him, the Commission gave a negative assessment of the proposal and asked for it to be reconsidered because of possible consequences for the capital market.
Democratic Bulgaria expects answers to its request by Friday, when a blitz question-and-answer session is scheduled in the National Assembly. The opposition intends to raise the issue with Finance Minister Galab Donev then as well.
At present, the full correspondence between the Bulgarian authorities and the European Commission has not been published. The available draft budget plan for 2027 also contains no text on reducing the contribution to the second pension pillar or redirecting it to the National Social Security Institute. Thus, Mirchev's claim and the government's denial remain part of a dispute that could be clarified through the publication of the documents.
Sources: bntnews.bg, dnes.bg, 24chasa.bg