GERB-UDF and We Continue the Change Challenge State Budget in Constitutional Court

Representatives of GERB-UDF and We Continue the Change (WCC) have each submitted separate petitions to the Constitutional Court seeking to have the recently adopted state budget declared unconstitutional. Both parties secured the required 50 signatures for their respective petitions, with GERB supporting WCC's submission and WCC supporting GERB's.

GERB-UDF argues that the budget breaches the Public Finance Act, which, it says, is contrary to the Constitution. The budget provides for a deficit of 5.7%, despite the legal limit being 3%.

According to We Continue the Change, the legislation contains several provisions that violate the Constitution because it amends other key laws through the budget legislation. These include reforms to the Labour Code affecting the recognition of length of service, as well as linking the salaries of magistrates to those of MPs.

Vladislav Goranov, GERB-UDF: "We argue that this is contrary to the principles of the rule of law under Article 4 of the Constitution and to the primacy of international law over national legislation. We believe that the existing fiscal rules set out in the Public Finance Act cannot simply be disregarded."

Stoyu Stoev, We Continue the Change: "A large proportion of the provisions that we are challenging before the Constitutional Court will only come into force in 2027, so their practical impact on this year's budget will be minimal. However, that is precisely the main problem: provisions that have no bearing on the budget are being amended through the transitional and final provisions."

Photos: BTA