AOBE PRESENTED ITS POSITION ON THE DRAFT STATE BUDGET, SOCIAL SECURITY BUDGET, AND NHIF BUDGET FOR 2026

The Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers (AOBE), which unites the nationally represented employer organizations - the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (AICB), the Bulgarian Industrial Association - Union of Bulgarian Business (BIA), the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), and the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIB) - presented its position regarding the draft State Budget, the Social Security Budget, and the NHIF Budget for 2026.

The position states:

The Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers (AOBE) does not take political positions and distances itself from any political initiatives. Our guiding principles are openness, engagement, and the search for long-term, sustainable solutions.

We have repeatedly declared that the current draft State Budget for 2026 constitutes a departure from the ruling majority’s stated commitment to preserving Bulgaria’s tax and social security model. On the contrary, it envisages an increase in social security contributions by 2 percentage points (resulting in more than a 10% rise in pension fund contribution costs) and a doubling of the tax on dividends. Thus, additional funds will be extracted monthly from every person employed in the real sector in order to finance inefficient public expenditures, including another double-digit increase in salaries in the “Security and Defence” and “Higher Education” sectors. All this shifts the cost of political populism onto businesses and workers, discourages investments, slows economic growth, expands the grey economy, and will ultimately reduce budget revenues. For this reason, AOBE does not support the presented draft Law on the 2026 State Budget.

Regrettably, the development of the budget procedure does not allow for a real debate or the search for and adoption of optimal solutions at this stage. For this reason, the organizations united in AOBE will not participate in the upcoming meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC) on 13 November. We do not accept being part of a process that replaces social dialogue with a formal discussion of the most important law of the country. After last week’s attempt at a formal consultation of the draft budget in the NCTC, the same document — unchanged in substance — is now being presented for discussion. This is not a statesmanlike approach but an imitation of consultations, devoid of genuine debate and responsibility.

AOBE will not legitimize such a decision. Our responsibility is to protect the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy, not to participate in a process that ignores reforms and continues inefficient spending, including of borrowed funds.

We remain ready for real dialogue - with adequate timelines, transparency, and impact assessment - and we will support such a process!