"The Council of Ministers fulfilled the obligation it had to fulfill under a text from the Labor Code. It had to fulfill – it has not yet been done, the EU directive, which obliges member states by October last year (for Bulgaria) to determine a mechanism for determining the minimum wage."
This was said to the Bulgarian National Radio about the 15% increase in the minimum wage since the beginning of this year by Dr. Hasan Ademov, a member of the APS, former Minister of Labor and Social Policy and Chairman of the Social Committee in Parliament.
According to Ademov, the solution proposed by the caretaker government – a bill that, in the absence of an adopted Budget 2025 and the absence of an extension law, "practically solves the issue of spending without it being clear how and whether the necessary revenues will be collected".
In order to adopt an extension law, the State Budget submitted by the Council of Ministers, as well as the budgets of the Social Insurance Institution and the NHIF, must be withdrawn, the former Minister of Social Affairs reminded.
There will be no problem with social payments, because almost all January payments are paid in February, he specified.
In the program "Above All" Ademov commented on a contradiction related to the amount of pensions and the uncertainty whether, in the current situation, on January 7, elderly people will receive a pension in the amount of last year's January or the December one, with the increase from July.
"Now the question is in what amount they should be received. According to the Minister of Finance – the amount after July, and according to the Public Finance Act - this amount from January. This is an open topic for discussion. The Budget Commission meeting is on the 7th, and by then the pensions will be calculated. I don't know if the National Social Security Institute will heed the call of the Minister of Finance."
One hypothesis is to have a ruling majority. The second - to implement the laws, as adopted last year, said Hasan Ademov in connection with the growth of salaries in certain areas, planned for this year.
"What happens to the income policy should be part of the policies of the ruling majority, if there is one."