15.04.2022
THE UPDATED NATIONAL RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE PLAN HAS BEEN APPROVED
The Recovery and Resilience Plan has a total value of about BGN 13.52 billion, of which about BGN 12.26 billion is funding from grants under the EU's Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. Against this are 57 investments and 47 reforms in 12 areas. The plan lays the foundations for a green and digital transformation of the economy, strengthening measures on the green transition, which already accounts for more than 53% of total projected expenditure, and digitalisation, where more than 23% of funding will go. The most significant improvements of the Plan as a result of the comments of the EC and in view of its compliance with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2021/241 were made in the components "Low Carbon Economy" and "Transport Connectivity". The changes were presented at public hearings in February 2022, before the National Assembly in March 2022 and published on the website of nextgeneration.bg also in March 2022 - The current version of the Plan can be found here: https://www.nextgeneration.bg/14
15.04.2022
A NATIONAL PROGRAM WILL FINANCE UP TO BGN 100,000 PROJECTS FOR ACCESSIBLE HOUSING FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
The Minister of Labor and Social Policy approved the National Program for Building Accessible Housing and Ensuring Conditions for Personal Mobility of People with Disabilities. A person with a permanent disability can apply for funding under the program with an individual needs assessment prepared in accordance with the Law on People with Disabilities.
The program will allocate up to BGN 100,000 for a project for the construction of ramps, lifting platforms, elevators in existing residential buildings and adjacent spaces. Owners of individual residential buildings (houses) who have permanent disabilities and move in wheelchairs or whose families have such people can apply for this component for funding. Project proposals can also be submitted by associations of condominium owners in multi-family residential buildings (blocks of flats), among which there are people with permanent disabilities, moving in wheelchairs, or in whose families there are such people.
Up to BGN 8,000 per project will be allocated under the Personal Mobility component. The funds will be provided for the adaptation of a car for driving by people with permanent disabilities or for the purchase of an adapted motor vehicle. Applicants may also receive funding for a driving course. The right to apply for this component have people with permanent disabilities with a proven deficiency of the lower and/or upper limbs and a decision of the medical examination authorities who have a document that they are physically fit to be drivers.
The total budget of the National Program for Accessible Housing and Personal Mobility for 2022 is BGN 2.5 million. The funds have increased by BGN 500,000 compared to last year.
14.04.2022
A BORDER CHECKPOINT IS BEING SET UP ON THE RUSE-GIURGIU FERRY
The Government approved a draft Agreement between the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania for the establishment of the Ruse-Giurgiu border crossing - ferry. The border checkpoint will serve passengers and motor vehicles transported by ships between the cities of Ruse and Giurgiu.
The opening of the checkpoint will create conditions for the resumption of the ferry line Ruse - Giurgiu. This will help overcome the difficulties of cross-border transport of passengers and goods between Bulgaria and Romania and will significantly ease traffic on the Bulgarian-Romanian border.
The resumption of the ferry line was agreed on January 28, 2022 in Ruse during a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Grozdan Karadzhov, Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Romania Sorin Grindianu.
Then it became clear that the ferry line will be resumed no later than June 2022, with the aim of taking over much of the heavy traffic between Bulgaria and Romania.
14.04.2022
UNDER THE PROGRAM FOR COOPERATION WITH ROMANIA, 8 BULGARIAN DISTRICTS WITH ACCESS TO OVER 207 MILLION EUROS FOR DEVELOPMENT
The Council of Ministers approved the draft Interreg VI-A Romania-Bulgaria 2021-2027 Cross-Border Cooperation Program. The total budget is 207.5m euros.
Of these, 163.5 million euros are provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The program will fund joint projects under four priorities: "Well Connected Region", "Greener Region", "More Educated Region" and "Integrated Territorial Development", the government's press service said.
The program territory of Interreg VI-A Romania - Bulgaria 2021 - 2027 covers eight Bulgarian districts - Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Pleven, Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse, Silistra and Dobrich. On the Romanian side, it includes seven Romanian regions - Constanta, Calarasi, Giurgiu, Teleorman, Dolj, Mehedinţi and Olt.
Beneficiaries can be national, regional and local authorities, universities, research centers, associations, non-governmental organizations, civic associations and networks and others.
The main goal of the program is to ensure sustainable and innovative growth of the regions, in accordance with the new EU cohesion policy for the period 2021-2027. The set goals are in line with the European vision for sustainable development in the implementation of regional policy, including the Territorial Agenda 2030, the European Green Pact and others.
The program is to be sent for approval by the European Commission.
14.04.2022
„GARDENS AND PARKS“ IS LOOKING FOR SEASONAL WORKERS
The Municipal Enterprise "Gardens and Parks" in Plovdiv is looking to hire workers for the following vacancies:
"Chainsaw cutter" - 3 pieces: manages, maintains and maintains all types of chainsaws available to the company, used in the felling of street and forest trees, pruning tree crowns and pruning fallen branches for pruning and cutting, perform them if necessary with the help of a car lift. Education - secondary and course.
"Gardener" - 2 pieces: performs work on maintaining green areas, digging soils, fertilizing, cutting shrubs and shoots, sowing grass, watering, weeding, flower figures, mowing - manual and mechanized, noise collection, sweeping alleys and playgrounds. Education is basic. Special skills - to know how to work with hand tools, garden equipment.
"Plumber" - 1 piece: performs preparatory work for repair of internal and external plumbing. Repairs and replaces taps, fittings and sewer pipes located in buildings, pump rooms, irrigation systems in lawns, etc. A certificate for professional plumbing training is required. Education - secondary.
"Installer, repair of machinery and equipment" - 1 piece: performs current, medium and major repairs, adjustment, inspection and adjustment of complex machines, electric pumps, lawn mowers, etc. Assembles, dismantles, adjusts, tests, checks the accuracy of mechanisms, machines and equipment in the workshop or in pumping stations and premises. Minimum requirements: III qualification group, refresher course of 1 year. Education - secondary special.
"Seasonal workers": perform work on maintaining cleanliness in parks and inter-block spaces during the intensive season: sweeping with a broom, collecting paper and other waste, fallen branches and noise; transportation of collected waste by hand truck to the landfill or to a convenient place for transportation; loading and unloading of the collected waste by truck; participates in washing the walls and bottoms of fountains and water areas; mowing lawns - machine and manual; collecting cut grass, serving a pumping station, watering lawns, planting, watering, weeding plants, flowers and flower figures and trees. Work experience is not required.
For more information: tel. 032 624 301.
14.04.2022
FROM 21 APRIL TO 20 MAY 2022, FARMERS CAN RECEIVE COVID AID
From 21 April to 20 May 2022, farmers can apply for support under the "Aid to support liquidity of farmers to overcome the negative economic impact of COVID-19" for 2022. This was decided at a meeting of the Board of the State Fund "Agriculture" (SFA).
The budget of the aid amounts to BGN 143,500,000, of which BGN 111,500,000 are provided by the Law on the State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria for 2022 and BGN 32,000,000 additional resources, which will be provided by a Decree of The Council of Ministers. After the promulgation of the decree in the State Gazette, the final amount of the aid will be approved by a decision of the SFA Management Board.
The budget is divided into the following areas:
- Large and small ruminants, bee families - BGN 79,000,000;
- Fruits and vegetables, oil-bearing rose and rice - BGN 64,500,000.
The aid is granted to farmers keeping large and small ruminants, bee colonies, fruits and vegetables, oil-bearing roses and rice, which are registered under Ordinance № 3 of 1999, meet the definition of small and medium-sized enterprises, according to Annex I of Regulation (EU) 702/2014 and were not in difficulty as at 31.12.2019.
Specific requirements according to the direction of application will be set out in the instructions for application of the aid, which will be prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and the SFA as soon as possible.
14.04.2022
MF: PEOPLE WILL CONTINUE TO INVEST THEIR MONEY IN REAL ESTATE
Demand for credit in 2022 will slow down compared to 2021, in line with the expected deterioration of the economic situation and increased uncertainty due to the conflict in Ukraine.
This is recorded in the draft medium-term budget forecast for the period 2023-2025. At the beginning of 2022, credit to the private sector continued to accelerate and at the end of February its annual growth reached 9.7%, accelerating all major components. Rising international prices of energy goods, raw materials and food and their impact on inflation and inflation expectations continued to stimulate demand for credit.
For non-financial corporations, loans accelerated to 6.6% with a major contribution from overdraft loans. This may be associated with a greater need for working capital for timely replenishment of stocks given the upward dynamics of prices. The strong rise in property prices, which accelerated to 9.4% on an annual basis in the last quarter of 2021, record low mortgage rates and strongly negative real interest rates on deposits led to an increase in the growth rate of housing loans to 18.1% at the end of February, the forecast said.
Factors that will act in the direction of slowing down the growth of credit to households will be the expected slowdown in the growth of consumption and compensation of employees in 2022. of the countercyclical capital buffer, in October 2022 and early 2023.
Despite the projected slowdown in housing loans, in 2022 their growth rate will remain relatively high, as buying a home is the main alternative form of investment or to preserve value in an environment of high inflation and low interest rates, according to the Ministry of Finance. Until the end of the forecast period, the growth of credit to households is expected to continue to slow down.
It will remain at relatively high levels in line with the projected development of employee compensation. At the end of 2023, the growth of receivables from households is projected to be 8.9%, and at the end of 2025 - 7.7%.
It is envisaged that in the period 2023 - 2025 the credit for the business will be gradually accelerated in line with the expected recovery of private investments, supported by the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan.
The growth of total receivables from enterprises is expected to be 5% at the end of 2023. In 2024, the total annual increase in receivables from enterprises will be 5.3%, and at the end of 2025 - 5.7%. Total receivables from the private sector will increase by 6.6% in 2023, and by the end of 2025 their growth rate will slow slightly to 6.5%.
13.04.2022
HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT AND LACK OF MANPOWER
Expert analysis of IME
In the last two years, the Bulgarian labor market has undergone drastic and extreme changes - from the rapid rise in unemployment at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis and restrictive measures to the creation of many new jobs and the return to labor shortages only a year later. In this text we will try to present the different phases that the labor market has gone through both at national level and in selected regions.
For this purpose, we use the Beveridge curve, which compares the unemployment rate with the number of vacancies relative to the total workforce. The resulting indicator is used to determine the moment of the business cycle through the dynamics of the labor market, as recessions are characterized by high unemployment and lower labor demand, periods of economic growth - with low unemployment, many vacancies and high competition for workers.
A special case is when there is an increase in unemployment, combined with an increase in the number of vacancies relative to the size of the labor force. In this case, there is likely to be a significant mismatch between employers' needs for new labor and the skills and qualifications of the unemployed, which indicates deeper structural problems in the labor market beyond the impact of the economic cycle.
To calculate the Beveridge curve in the period between January 2020 and February 2022, we use monthly data from employment offices provided by the Employment Agency, which allows tracking the impact of the introduction and enforcement of restrictive measures and the sharp deterioration of the overall economic climate.
The Beveridge curve for the last two years clearly shows that from the point of view of the labor market, the crisis can be divided into several stages. With the introduction of the initial restrictions on social and economic life in March 2020, unemployment increased by almost 3 percentage points. up to 9% of the workforce, but the level of vacancies remains almost unchanged at 20 thousand - or 6-6.5 per thousand able-bodied. In other words, even in a period of sharp rise in economic uncertainty, employers generally do not shrink their demand for labor. There was a slight decline in labor demand only in the winter months with the introduction of the second wave of restrictive measures, the lowest level of which was reported in December 2020 - with 4.82 vacancies per thousand able-bodied.
The equilibrium point at which the vacancy rate exceeds unemployment comes in February 2021, with the usual seasonal dynamics observed during the year. Demand for labor increases in the summer months with the intensification of tourism and agriculture and shrinks respectively in the autumn and winter months, while the unemployment rate falls below its pre-crisis levels to 4.7 - 4.9% in the autumn of 2021. in other words, the conclusion is confirmed that Covid-19 and the restrictions (at least at the level of the national economy) have led to a momentary shock in the labor market, the effects of which, however, virtually disappear with the normalization of economic life.
However, the big "scissors" between unemployment and the demand for labor are a cause for concern - it is mostly a sign of structural discrepancies between the skills of the unemployed and the sought-after employees.
The regional comparison illustrates the different processes in the interaction between labor supply and demand at the sub-national level. The examples were chosen because of their different dynamics. While Burgas and Blagoevgrad were among the districts most severely affected by the initial blow to the labor market and continue to recover from it, Vidin is the weakest district in the country and the capital the strongest and most flexible market. labor throughout the economy.
Like the rest of the country, Blagoevgrad suffered a rapid rise in unemployment under the first restrictions - up to 14% in April - May 2020. Unlike other areas, however, unemployment remained high throughout the period and did not fall below 8%. However, the demand for labor is constantly rising, remaining at 20 vacancies per thousand able-bodied throughout the summer of 2021. This is a particularly worrying sign of the medium-term development of the regional labor market - apparently local businesses are particularly hungry for staff , but the unemployed in the district are not able to meet such high demand (or working conditions do not meet their requirements).
Burgas is an interesting case in terms of the strong influence of seasonal employment dynamics. As a result, the unemployment rate is relatively less affected than the limits in the spring of 2020, with the unemployment peak reaching 8.8% in April 2020; for comparison, in January 2021 the level was already 7.3%. However, the demand for labor is changing significantly, as in 2020 in the traditionally busiest month of May before the summer season there are only 11.5 vacancies per thousand able-bodied, compared to 22 per 1,000 only a year later. This demonstrates, on the one hand, the dependence on tourism, but on the other hand leads to the conclusion that the reduced demand for labor, combined with low unemployment, is most likely a sign of the complete elimination of a significant number of able-bodied people from the labor market.
At the same time, Vidin stays out of the general dynamics, and the impact of the crisis in the district is weak, with unemployment rising from 14.5 in January to 16.5 in May 2020 and a gradual decline to just over 11% by the end of 2021 However, throughout the period the demand for labor is significantly lower than the supply, reaching its peak for a short time 11 vacancies per 1000 able-bodied in November 2021, but most of the time gravitates in the range of 5 - 7 per 1000. This in turn, it means that the major problems in the regional labor market are structural and far ahead of the pandemic, especially in terms of low entrepreneurial activity and investment, which determines the low demand for labor, labor.
The capital is a diametrically opposed example. Unemployment managed to reach or exceed the demand for labor in a very short time - only in May, June and December 2020. However, in this crisis, the Sofia labor market clearly demonstrates that it is the most flexible and adaptable in the country, as by the end of 2021 unemployment is shrinking to "naturally" low levels of 1.5%, which is combined with high demand for labor (given the large size of the local economy) from 5 - 7 vacancies per 1000 able-bodied.
In conclusion, the review of labor supply and demand in the crisis year and the subsequent recovery period shows rather a brief shock, followed by a recovery in pre-crisis positive employment trends and labor shortages. However, some regional labor markets suffer from structural problems and skills gaps, the resolution of which will be among the important challenges in attracting investment and raising living standards on the ground.
12.04.2022
WHAT IS MANDATORY AND WHAT CAN BE AGREED IN THE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT?
The employment contract is the most widely used basis for employment. That is why it is good for workers and employers to be aware that the employment contract has a legal and contractual content. What are the differences between the legal and contractual content of employment contracts?
The legal content follows directly from the law and is included in the contract by virtue of the law, without the need to be explicitly entered in it. The rights and obligations that form the legal content of the employment contract are established for all employees. Their grounds are specified in the Labor Code and in other laws or by-laws. By concluding the employment contract, the parties agree to the legal provisions without being able to amend or repeal them.
The legal content of the employment contract includes some basic rights of the employer, such as the right to personnel policy, mainly related to the fact that the employer, within the rights and obligations provided by law, may appoint, manage, amend and terminate employment with staff in your company.
The legal content of the employment contract also includes some basic obligations of the employer, compliance with which is subject to administrative and judicial control. These obligations of the employer outline the basic statutory rights of the employee.
The obligation to ensure healthy and safe working conditions, the employer's obligation to protect the dignity of the employee, the obligation to pay wages, the obligation to ensure normal working conditions, as well as to provide information to the employee, including economic and financial condition.
The legal content of the employment contract also includes some basic obligations of the employees, such as the obligation to perform their duties accurately and conscientiously, to appear at work in a condition that allows them to perform their assigned tasks and not to drink alcohol during working hours or other intoxicating substance, to perform their work in the required quantity and quality, and to observe the technical and technological rules, as well as the internal rules adopted in the enterprise, and not to interfere with other employees to perform their duties, to be loyal to the employer, etc.
The contractual content again includes mandatory elements that must be included in every employment contract. However, the parties have the opportunity to determine them, and in no case can they pass the restrictions or requirements of the law.
These are the place of work, the name of the position and the nature of work, the date of conclusion of the employment contract and the beginning of its implementation, the duration of the employment contract, the length of the working day, the amount of paid annual leave, remuneration, notice of termination contract.
It is permissible in the employment contracts to negotiate optional clauses between the parties. An employment relationship can arise without them, but if such an element is included, it must be with the consent of both parties. Such are, for example, the clauses regulating, for example, taking over part or all of the employee's expenses for electricity, heating and the like when working remotely, etc.
Reference:
Art. 66 of the Labor Code
12.04.2022
A NEW PROCEDURE HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES
The whole of Europe is in an extremely difficult situation of global inflation, war and economic crisis, and the Ministry of Innovation and Growth (MIG) is working to help Bulgarian companies continue their sustainable development, Daniel Laurer, Minister of Innovation and growth, told reporters.
He announced the beginning of the procedure "Rehabilitation of small and medium enterprises through the improvement of energy efficiency" with a budget of BGN 136 million to the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness" (OPIC). The procedure is aimed at micro, small and medium-sized companies in the manufacturing industry. The sector is among the most affected by rising electricity prices.
The co-financing under the program is up to 50 percent. In this way, investment projects of more companies will be supported. The application will start on May 3 and will end on May 23.
Companies will have 11 working days before the start date to apply to prepare their projects. With the money you will be able to buy tangible fixed assets - machinery, equipment and modern systems to improve energy efficiency.
The list of all eligible machines and equipment is part of the application package. Companies must complete their projects within 10 months of concluding contracts.
The full package of documents on the procedure (Conditions for application, Conditions for implementation and annexes to them) is published in UMIS 2020: https://eumis2020.government.bg, on the website of the operational program: www.opic.bg, as well as on The single information portal for general information on the management of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund of the European Union in the Republic of Bulgaria: www.eufunds.bg.
The National Recovery and Sustainability Plan (NRSP) received a positive assessment from the European Commission. The programs managed by the MIG provide BGN 1.3 billion to help Bulgarian enterprises. The planning for part of the funds is in the final phase and there will be money at the end of June to support the companies, the minister added.
