Bulgarian Cabinet Makes Governance Programme Public

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov (C) chairs the meeting of the Council of Ministers. Photo: BGNES

The Bulgarian Council of Ministers published its detailed governance programme on the government's website on Friday.

Although the programme was adopted on Wednesday, it was made public only after the first meeting of the Council for development, electronic daily Dnevnik reports.

The Council for development, which was established last week, is the body where parties of the ruling coalition will discuss contentious issues.

The programme has 177 pages and contains 21 chapters – each of them covering a certain policy area.

In the section on foreign policy, the government foresees strengthening Bulgaria's influence in the European institutions as well as establishment of trade relations with Russia and the major Asian countries.

As regards the economy and tourism, the cabinet will aim at attracting more high-income tourists and will provide bankrupted businessmen with a second chance.

The expenses on defence are set to increase to 2 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2018, while video surveillance will be increased in order to fight crime and ensure internal order.

The programme envisages reform of the museums and greater transparency of media ownership.

The improvement of the road infrastructure in northwestern Bulgaria is identified as one of the priorities of the government's regional policy.

As regards healthcare, the programme foresees that salaries of emergency medics will increase twofold.

The chapter on education provides an online system for external assessment and training of pupils through work experience.

For its social policy, the government foresees an increase in the weight of work experience from 2017 and less working poor.

As regards finances, there will be a new tax policy model.

In terms of energy, the South Stream project remains in the programme, as an official decision on its cancellation is still lacking, Deputy Prime Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said.

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