site.btaUPDATED Parliamentary Monitor: Thursday

At its regular sitting on Thursday, the National Assembly transacted business as follows: 

- adopted, 137-13 with 5 abstentions, the Annual Working Programme of the National Asssembly on European Union Affairs for 2022. The debate began on Wednesday when the key moments in the Programme were presented. The document includes draft legislative acts that allow Parliament to effectively control the Government’s participation in the EU agenda as well as to participate in the political dialogue with EU institutions. It is noted that the European Commission proposes 42 new political initiatives to be implemented by 2024 with the goal to achieve a more ecological, just, digitalized and sustainable post-COVID Europe. Among the initiatives are the European Green Deal, an economy in the interest of people, a stronger Europe on the European scene, and affirmation of the European way of life;

- rejected, 12-81 with 40 abstentions, first-reading amendments to the Health Act tabled by the Vazrazhdane parliamentary group proposing that Parliament, and not the Council of Ministers, should have the power to declare a state of epidemic emergency. The draft revisions also envisaged that such a state be in effect for no more than two months, and that the vaccination against COVID-19 be described as “voluntary” and “not a condition for access to education, work, and public spaces and for exercising civil rights”; 

- heard National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) head Petko Salchev in relation to the NHIF becoming in charge as of July 1 of the allocation, control, payment and repair of mobility aids for people with disabilities. Salchev explained that as the NHIF had warned as early as last year, the Fund’s administrative capacity is such that no more than two employees at its regional offices can be tasked with the mobility aids’ allocation. Labour and Social Policy Minister Georgi Gyokov voiced concern over this and said a way should be sought to increase the NHIF’s administrative capacity. Salchev also said that from here onwards, the lists with mobility aids will be updated annually. It has been agreed that pharmacies and drugstores will be allowed to sell mobility aids for people with disabilities. The very expensive mobility aids will be monitored centrally and will be reviewed by commissions. The Agency of People with Disabilities has transferred its entire data base to the NHIF, and the systems of consultative medical commissions and territorial expert medical commissions are about to be linked to the NHIF system, Salchev told Parliament;

- held a first-reading debate on Vazrazhdane-sponsored draft revisions to the Value Added Tax Act. Due to the time for Thursday’s plenary sitting running out, the MPs could not vote on the proposed changes whereby a zero rate of VAT should be introduced for basic food products, medicinal products, electricity and heating. According to Vazrazhdane, this measure would reduce or at least prevent a further increase of these products’ prices. The parliamentary groups of Continue the Change and BSP for Bulgaria voiced concern over such a measure’s impact on budget revenue, while the Movement for Right and Freedoms voiced support for a zero rate of VAT on medicinal products only. 

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The Vazrazhdane parliamentary group insists that the state reserve should be opened to construction entrepreneurs and be used as a buffer until the State can ensure the normal functioning of the market, MP Nikola Dimitrov told a briefing in Parliament. In his words, the construction branch is one of the main indicators of Bulgaria’s economy. Some of the companies in this branch are facing bankruptcy due to the suspended deliveries of steel from Ukraine and Russia, and only 50 per cent of the market’s needs for steel are met, he noted. Many materials appreciated at the start of the year mainly as a result of the rise in electricity prices, and the military situation in Ukraine exacerbated the problem; key products are missing from the construction materials exchanges, Dimitrov argued. He said firmly that the sanctions against the Russian Federation should be lifted. 

Another MP of Vazrazhdane, Tsoncho Ganev, said that Bulgaria cannot afford to be an enemy of Russia. In one month, one of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant’s units will undergo planned repairs and if the Russian Federation decides not to provide spare parts, Bulgaria will have to close down that unit, he commented.