EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
In April, our authors once again took over the media space with opinions on current topics: the Mobility package, pension and health insurance, taxes, legalization of marijuana, and the upcoming elections.
The chairman of the Bulgarian Libertarian Society, Stoyan Panchev, participated in the show "More of the Day" on BNT about Macron's "Mobility" package and the consequences it will bring for Bulgarian business. "For me, the "Mobility" package is another thing we see coming from Western Europe through the EU, which is to our detriment, because we are significantly poorer than the French," the economist said.
Later in the month, he reiterated his position on the topic in "Visible and Invisible" on Bulgaria on Air and discussed the issue of religious tolerance of the Synod and society.
Speaking to Bulgarian National Radio, Panchev expressed his concern about the pre-election spending of money from the budget related to the cabinet's decision to allocate 50 million leva for medical workers. According to him, this is a political decision that has no economic justification and recalled that we saw similar populist steps with the long-defunct pension system.
The chairman of the BLO participated in a debate on TV Europe against the deputy chairman of the ABV, Lyubomira Gancheva, on the topic "Is the flat tax fair? Is there a need to change the tax system in Bulgaria? More market or more regulated economy?" Panchev defended the flat tax, declared himself absolutely against raising taxes and emphasized that Bulgarian society is tending to get richer.
Georgi Vuldjev, the expert on the topic of pension insurance, told "More from the Day" on BNT that for now the second pension is expected to be smaller than the pensions in the first pillar and this is due to the fact that the contributions in the second pillar are 5-6 times lower than the overall contributions in the first pillar. Vuldjev added that unfortunately the idea of gradually increasing the percentage for the second pension to 10% has not yet been realized. Moreover, according to him, a regression is rather occurring: the role of the first pillar is increasing and that of the second is decreasing.
The editor-in-chief of EKIP appeared twice in the morning block of Bulgaria on air. Vuldjev and Mika Zaikova were of the opinion that the unemployment data in Bulgaria do not correspond to the truth. Our economist drew attention to the need for a comprehensive fiscal reform and a reduction in centralization. In his next appearance, he expressed his expectations that inflation will slow down even more because we are coming out of an economic boom.
In the Q&A program with Klara Marinova, Vuldjev commented on the candidates for MEPs and the programs of the ruling GERB and the opposition BSP.
BLO Program Director Dimitar Karagegov was the most active in the media space this month. He supported the self-organized civil disobedience on April 20 and was interviewed by leading television media outlets: BNT and bTV.
In March, Dimitar Karagegov participated in the world-famous TEDx format with the topic: "15 years in which we did not legalize weed". The recording of his speech already has more than 75,000 views on YouTube.
Health economist Arkady Sharkov once again called for the need for healthcare reform on Bulgarian National Radio and Bulgaria on Air. He emphasized that healthcare costs have been skyrocketing in recent years and investing funds in this system will not solve its problems.
