Mayor of Sofia Returns 2025 City Budget for Reconsideration, Citing Lack of Balance

The Mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev, will return the 2025 budget decision of the Sofia Municipal Council for reconsideration, citing non-compliance with the law and lack of expediency.

“The municipal councillors approved a city budget that is unbalanced — revenues in the adopted budget exceed expenditures by over BGN 3.5 million, rendering it unlawful under the Public Finance Act,” Mayor Terziev stated. He added that he would return the budget for a new review and voting.

The adopted budget foresees total revenues of BGN 2,868,687,985, including BGN 2,752,225,485 in budgetary revenues, and expenditures of BGN 2,865,173,962, of which BGN 2,748,711,462 are budgetary expenditures.

“I hope that this time, the municipal councillors will listen to our arguments and those of the experts in the Sofia Municipality administration, so that Sofia can finally have a functioning budget. This will allow us to move forward with the planned projects,” Terziev added.

The Sofia Municipal Council voted on the budget late in the evening of May 29, after lengthy debates and numerous amendments initiated by councillors from GERB, BSP, Spasi Sofia (Save sofia), and Carlos Contrera from VMRO.

"This is a precedent in the history of Sofia. For the first time a city council adopts a budget contrary to the law and the Mayor of Sofia will return it for revision. In addition, several clear procedural breaches occurred during the discussion and adoption of the city’s budget,” said Deputy Mayor for Finance, Ivan Vasilev.