The State Social Insurance budget for 2018 has passed second reading in parliament.

The bill introduces amendments to the Social Insurance Code, which change the entitlement to unemployment benefits. The insurance contributions to the Unemployment Fund shall be paid for no less than 12 months in the past 18 months.

Until now unemployment benefits have been available to persons for whom insurance contributions have been paid or due at least 9 months in the past 15 months before termination of insurance.

There will also be changes in the minimum length of contributory service during which persons have been insured against unemployment after 31st December 2001, affecting the unemployment benefit. For example, a person with a length of contributory service between 11 and 15 years will be entitled to unemployment benefits for 10 months. The MPs have agreed that the entitlement, amount and period of payment for persons whose insurance will have been terminated before 1st January 2018 will be calculated as until now.

Amendments to the Agricultural Producers Assistance Act have passed first reading. The amendments envisage that productions under investment measures and sub-measures of the Rural Regions Development Programme will be implemented through the Integrated System for Managing and Monitoring Resources from the EU Structural and Investment Funds.

Project proposals under these measures will be subject to ex-ante evaluation, when the total amount of financial assistance applied for exceeds the budget for the relevant reception period. The evaluation and ranking criteria and procedure will be specified in the application guidelines. Complaints can be filed within one week after the ranking has been published and will be looked at by an ad hoc committee. It is envisaged that decisions will be announced within two weeks.

Productions under the compensatory measures of surface areas, related to afforestation, agroecology and climate, organic agriculture, Natura 2000, disadvantaged regions and animal welfare will be implemented through the Integrated System for Administration and Control.

BSP and MRF have said that this is the second draft of the bill discussed in parliament. The opposition parties have stated that some of the weaknesses have been dealt with, but the two-week period for responding to complaints is insufficient and has to be adjusted.

Amendments to the Credit Institutions Act, sponsored by Menda Stoyanova, have passed second reading. The aim of the revisions is to improve the regulatory framework of bank supervision. The text should fulfil the recommendations from the report of the Financial Sector Assessment Program and the Bulgarian National Bank’s commitments in response to the report.

There will be improvement of the regulation of risk coming from exposures to connected parties: bank administrators, shareholders with a qualifying or larger share, persons controlling the bank, bank subsidiaries and other parties connected with the bank.

The amendments also affect the Bulgarian National Bank Act by providing that minutes will be kept at the meetings of the BNB Managing Board and signed by the members present at the meeting and the minutes-keeper. Information about the decisions of the Managing Board will be published on the Bank’s website except when decisions contain a professional, bank, commercial, or other secret protected by law. The BNB Managing Board will impose supervision measures and early intervention measures, grant approval, permission and consent in the cases provided by law. The new provisions specify that the Deputy Governor in charge of the bank supervision will exercise their supervisory powers and operational management of the unit autonomously and independently from the functions of other BNB units. The Deputy Governor in charge of the banking unit will exercise their powers and operational management of the unit autonomously and independently from the functions of the other BNB units.