The National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC) will discuss the two draft laws for the budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and the budget of the State Social Security (SSS) for 2026. The government, trade unions, and employers' organizations will also discuss the draft Law on the State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria for 2026. This was announced by the government press office. The meeting is scheduled for 11:00 AM.
At the end of last week, the trade unions, employers' organizations, and the government reached an agreement on the main parameters of the draft budget for 2026, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova announced after a meeting with the social partners. She also announced that the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation will meet on Monday, followed by the Council of Ministers, with the goal of submitting the draft budget to the National Assembly on Monday afternoon.
BTA recalls that on November 5, the meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, in which the social partners were to discuss the budget, did not take place, as employers' organizations refused to participate.
On December 1, citizens protested against the draft budget for 2026 in Sofia and other cities in the country. The organizers of the discontent were from "We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB), and the reason was the refusal of GERB leader Boyko Borisov to have the already submitted draft budget for the next year withdrawn from parliament. There was also unrest in the capital in the late hours. On December 3, the parliament unanimously agreed to withdraw the draft budgets of the state, NHIF, and SSS for 2026, and on December 6, the Ministry of Finance published the new draft budget for 2026. Yesterday, the supervisory boards of the NHIF and the NSSI approved the draft budgets for the Fund and the state social security.