Bulgaria's President Imposes Partial Veto on Budget Revision Act

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has imposed a partial veto on the Law on Amending and Supplementing the State Budget Act for 2013.

In a Wednesday media statement, Plevneliev made clear he had signed a decree ordering certain provisions of the law to be returned for revision by Parliament.

"I respect the right of every government to implement the policies which it considers beneficial to the country and for which it received support. I do not mind if these policies are implemented through a budget revision or through taking on new debt. I back the provisions about the increase in funds. But I adamantly oppose attempts to motivate the step by manipulating the group of the most socially underprivileged of our fellow citizens," Bulgaria's head of state declared.

He explained that the package of social measures included in the budget update constituted a very small share of the earmarked expenses.

Plevneliev pointed out that there was insufficient information about how the new debt of BGN 1 B would be spent.

He noted that he failed to see serious plans about policies and reforms in support of competition and economic growth.

"In order for us to live better, it is not the expenses or the deficit which need to increase, it is the economy which needs to grow," he added.

Plevneliev explained that he had imposed a partial veto to stress that he was in favor of the money earmarked for social measures and reminded that the caretaker government had also allocated BGN 41 M to supporting the most socially vulnerable groups by making savings.

He emphasized that the veto concerned provisions concerning revenues, expenses and the new debt.

The budget revision proposal passed second reading in Parliament on August 1.

The current, socialist-led Cabinet of former Finance Minister and now Prime Minister, Plamen Oresharski, and Finance Minister, Petar Chobanov, decided in mid-July it was necessary to revise the budget prepared by Simeon Djankov, Finance Minister in the previous Cabinet of the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB.

It has not yet become conclusively clear if Bulgarian MPs will return to Parliament, interrupting their August summer recess, to work on the vetoed provisions, but Parliament Chair Mihail Mikov has said that there are no legal grounds for the step.

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