Atanasova: On Wednesday we will show that the Euro-Atlantic majority has it – Bulgaria

The chairman of the PG GERB-SDS Desislava Atanasova stated that they were held very intense conversations, in which Finance Minister Asen Vassilev participated. “On our part, we and our colleagues from the DPS we set a few conditions – on Wednesday the two parliamentary groups will participate in the quorum of the National Assembly and we will show that the Euro-Atlantic majority has it“, Atanasova announced to journalists.

She also indicated the conditions. The first topic – derogation of “Lukoil”, second topic Law on the state budget and third topic – Demonstration of the Euro-Atlantic majority. “We received guarantees from colleagues, from PP-DB, in the person of Mr. Vassilev, that henceforth there will be no casesin which their parliamentary group will vote together in a different majority with “Vazrazhdane”, BSP and ITN”, said Atanasova.

Atanasova: If PP-DB do not comply with GERB’s priorities, I will propose “dismantling”

On the subject of the derogation, Atanasova said that it will be canceled in two steps – the first step from January 1, suspension of export quotas, and the second from March 2, final cancellation of the derogation. For this transition period, they agreed solely and only so that there would be no financial shocks in the market, namely these damages from an increase in the price of diesel and gasoline. “We found opportunities to satisfy all the requests of the parliamentary groups,” she added.

From his side Jordan Tsonev from DPS described as intense the talks regarding The law on the state budget. “The PG of GERB set a condition that the revenues be made more realistically, and in this regard they will be reduced by BGN 2.4 billion. Exactly as much as the supposed planned contribution to the gas tax,” Tsonev added.

“The second condition of the PG of GERB was to have a list of national priority investment sites, and this list will include the Struma highway, the Pleven-Ruse road, and the Hemus highway,” said Yordan Tsonev.

He also pointed out the conditions that PG has set for DPS: “To have a priority list of investments for the municipalities. These two priority lists will be clarified between the first and second reading and will be an integral part of the budget, provided with the corresponding resource. As the capital program goes from 12 to 10 billion – enough to cover all these requirements and help the country’s economy not to go into recession. We have refined the debt ceiling by almost BGN 1.2 billion. We have reached an agreement on the framework and content of the capital expenditures of the state budget, and it will be submitted by Minister Vasilev next week.”

The former energy ministerViolet Petkova stated that they had GERD multiple notes, in relation to the submitted project for budget 2024 “After a meeting in the National Assembly with Minister Vassilev, within the framework of an expert dialogue, we presented our concerns and our claims to the proposed budget framework,” she added. According to her, they had many constructive conversations with Minister Vasilev and managed to reach an agreement regarding the parameters of the budget. “As of today, I can say that we have reached an agreement on the subject of the budget,” Petkova said categorically.

Minister Asen Vassilev thanks Tsonev and Petkova for the conversations. “There is one main change in the budget, which is related to the fact that the contribution from Gazprom is dropped, and it is not 100% certain that it will be realized from the revenue part, and at the same time, the expenditure part in the capital part is also reduced by the same amount expenses,” said the finance minister. He explained that the capital differences fall from just over 12 billion to just under 10 billion BGN. The rest of the budget framework remains unchanged. “We will redo the budget in its form so that it can pass through the small and large tripartite, respectively to be accepted by the MS“, Vassilev added.

According to him, the decision on the derogation is extremely useful for Bulgarian citizens, because on the one hand, according to him, exports are stopped and, accordingly, the money that goes to Russia – that is, export quotas are reduced, and on the other hand, with March 1 as the end date it is guaranteed that there will be no upheaval in the internal fuel market and, accordingly, there is enough time for a smooth transition without raising prices for Bulgarian citizens.

“We had a fairly frank conversation with GERB, about the fact that neither they nor we should form a majority with the parliament – ITN, Vazrazhdane and BSP, as this leads to unhealthy processes – loss of trust”, Vassilev added.