September 20, 2010


National Assembly Chair Tsetska Tsacheva and MPs from the parliamentary group of GERB met on September 20, 2010 with the President of the Podkrepa Trade Union Dr. Konstantin Trenchev and his deputy Dimitar Manolov. The meeting was held on the request of the union leaders. Labor and Social Policy Minister Totyu Mladenov attended the meeting.

National Assembly Chairperson Tsetska Tsacheva said to media representatives that the topic of the talks held with the Union concerned the pension reform and went in a spirit of dialogue and constructiveness.

The Minister of Labour and Social Policy Totyu Mladenov and the Podkrepa leader Dr. Konstantin Trenchev indicated that a working group of experts will work on the proposals for amendments in the Social Security Code, moved between the first and second reading of the bill. The changes will most probably target the number of years of contributions needed for retirement for the different categories of workers which are to be increased gradually, rather than increasing the retirement age as is in the present version of the bill. The Manager of the National Insurance Institute Christina Mitreva, on her part, has proposed modifications to the current point system of retirement.