An analysis of next year’s European Union budget was provided by Assoc. Prof. Dimitar Zlatinov, PhD, Head of the Department of Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Assoc. Prof. Zlatinov discussed the EU’s financial framework for 2026 on BNR’s “Horizont” programme.

“It is not so much a matter of new priorities, because to a large extent we can say that these are the same old priorities. The strongest emphasis is placed on cohesion between countries and on policies related to the ecological transition and the Green Deal. What is more important for Bulgaria, however, is how these priorities and, accordingly, the funding we will receive can be transformed into investments, as this is one of our most serious problems. We are talking not only about investments in human capital—which are undoubtedly very important—but also in physical capital, infrastructure, and a better environment in which to live and work. The risks concern far more how we ourselves will manage our national budget, rather than the contribution we make to the European one, because what has been observed in the long term is that Bulgaria is among the countries that receive more from the European Union than it pays in. The delay in the Recovery and Resilience Plan is a negative factor. The EU budget very clearly follows the programme-based principle—that is, if we have good projects and they can be implemented, that will be a prerequisite for their financing. Bulgaria is also trying to take advantage of the higher spending on rearmament, which I would not comment on positively, because when more is spent on weapons, this cannot be considered a positive policy with long-term beneficial consequences”, commented Assoc. Prof. Zlatinov.