Parliament Speaker Natalia Kiselova Hopes ESC Dialogue Will Extend to the National Assembly
I hope that the dialogue that you maintain in the Economic and Social Council (ESC) will extend to the National Assembly. This was stated by the Speaker of the Parliament Natalia Kiselova, who greeted the participants in the last 2024 plenary session of the ESC. Natalia Kiselova acknowledged that dialogue can sometimes be challenging but emphasized her determination, as a patient person, to foster it. She expressed hope that after the New Year, when parliamentary committees are formed, the Council will assist them with its analyses.
“Your organisation exemplifies how people from various professional, trade union, employer, and civil society groups can communicate, listen, and reach agreements,” she said.
ESC President Zornitsa Roussinova expressed gratitude that one of the first visits by the President of the 51st National Assembly was to the Council. She highlighted Ms. Kiselova’s extensive expertise and her alignment with the consensus reached by employers, trade unions, and civil society organizations on critical issues. During the meeting, council members approved the ESC’s 2025 Action Plan, addressing key topics such as the minimum wage, tax system, energy poverty, education, artificial intelligence, and other matters vital to the country’s social and economic development.
The Economic and Social Council emphasised that policies aimed at fostering catching-up economic growth should be a priority for both the executive and legislative branches. This stance was outlined in the ESC’s opinion on “Policies to Stimulate Catching-up Economic Growth in Bulgaria”, adopted during its plenary session. Maria Mincheva (ESC Group I) and Lyuboslav Kostov (ESC Group II) were appointed as rapporteurs, with Shteryo Nojarov and Petar Mishev serving as external experts.
Bulgaria must systematically improve its positioning on key indicators of economic competitiveness, including labor productivity, innovation, STEM graduate share, digital transformation, foreign direct investment attraction, public capital expenditure as a percentage of GDP, carbon and energy intensity of the economy, and the institutional and business environment.
The Economic and Social Council recommends that the government budget prioritises stimulating investment activities that drive structural economic transformation, rather than merely sustaining the operational functioning of public systems.
“The basis of high incomes should be catching-up economic growth, the value added created, and its efficient and equitable distribution and redistribution. The low-tech level of the economy, its high energy and carbon intensity show that there is not enough effort for a transformational change in the structure of Bulgarian GDP”, the authors of the opinion state. They emphasise that the low-tech nature of the economy, combined with its high energy and carbon intensity, reflects insufficient efforts toward a transformational change in the structure of Bulgaria’s GDP. The authors further highlight that a sustainable industrial policy, grounded in the adoption of best available technologies, is essential to transforming industrial sectors and their supply chains, ensuring competitiveness and long-term growth.
Bulgaria can meet the last criterion for joining the euro area – that of price stability – by December this year at the latest, the ESC said in a Declaration on Bulgaria’s Accession to the Euro Area, adopted at the same plenary session. The ESC calls on Bulgarian authorities to promptly initiate the implementation of the National Assembly’s decision. Following compliance with the price stability criterion, the ESC recommends that Bulgaria request extraordinary convergence reports from the European Commission (EC) and the European Central Bank (ECB) within two weeks of the decision’s implementation.
