The National Assembly rejected the veto of the President Georgi Parvanov imposed on the 2012 State and Public Social Security Budget Act passed last week. The law was once again put to vote and supported by 122 deputies, 62 voted against and 9 abstained.

The Minister of Labor and Social Policy Totyu Mladenov defended in the plenary the rationale behind the reform, reiterating that if the latter is postponed the deficit of the state social security would continue growing thus endangering even the present pensions. He reminded of the resolution adopted by the European Union urging the member states to up retirement age. He added that the retirement age and years of service increase had no alternatives and happened to be the only necessary and useful measure. In his view the increase of the age for retirement and the number of work years by 4 months, starting at the beginning of next year, is the most painless way to achieve it.