Balgarianovinite.com The European Council on Friday adopted country-specific recommendations for the Member States, including five recommendations addressed to Bulgaria covering economic, social, employment, structural and budgetary policies.
The Council recommends that Bulgaria adhere to the maximum growth rates of net expenditure in 2026 and 2027 with a view to bringing an end to the excessive deficit procedure. It also calls for higher defence and security spending and improved readiness while ensuring debt sustainability and gradually adapting the budget to support structurally higher defence expenditure.
According to the recommendations, measures introduced to mitigate the impact of higher energy prices should remain temporary and targeted and continue to preserve incentives for energy savings. Bulgaria is also urged to step up efforts to tackle the shadow economy by reducing incentives for income underreporting and non-declaration, improving the fairness and revenue-generating capacity of the tax system, strengthening tax collection, including the recovery of tax arrears, and broadening the revenue base.
The second recommendation calls for continued implementation of reforms and investments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility and faster implementation of cohesion policy programmes. The Council also recommends investment in dual-use infrastructure, particularly in the regions along the European Union’s external eastern border.
Under the third recommendation, Bulgaria is advised to improve the functioning of the public administration by streamlining and digitalising administrative processes and services and strengthening the skills of civil servants. The Council also calls for more effective anti-corruption measures, particularly in cases involving high-level corruption, including through strengthening the independence and effective functioning of the Supreme Judicial Council. It further recommends improving the quality and effectiveness of public procurement procedures.
The fourth recommendation focuses on the energy sector. It calls for further decarbonisation of Bulgaria’s electricity system and reduced reliance on fossil fuel-based electricity generation by promoting wind power deployment, increasing the flexibility of electricity supply and demand, upgrading electricity grid infrastructure and reforming the corporate governance of state-owned energy companies to improve transparency. Additional measures include modernising district heating systems through the gradual phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies, tackling energy poverty through targeted support, encouraging industrial decarbonisation, promoting clean urban and rail transport and improving waste management.
The fifth recommendation urges Bulgaria to improve teaching quality through needs-based teacher training and strengthen competence-based learning. It also calls for education and training to be better aligned with labour market needs and for greater effectiveness and accessibility of the healthcare system, including by reducing out-of-pocket payments and addressing the shortages and uneven distribution of healthcare professionals across the country.
The recommendations were adopted as part of the 2026 European Semester, the EU’s annual framework for coordinating Member States’ economic, fiscal and employment policies. EU Council Adopts Five Recommendations for Bulgaria’s Economic, Social, Labor, Structural, Budgetary Policies 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-07-10 13:00:00 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law