The government remains in power: WCC, GERB and MRF agreed on the derogation of Russian oil imports, the state budget and the quorum in the National Assembly

GERB and MRF will participate in the sitting of the National Assembly on Wednesday and will show that the Euro-Atlantic majority exists, said the chairwoman of the GERB-UDF parliamentary group, Desislava Atanasova, after a meeting with the co-chairman of "We Continue the Change" and Finance Minister Assen Vassilev and the deputy chairman of the MRF group, Yordan Tsonev, on November 17.

Next year's budget, the derogation for Russian oil and the cooperation between the three formations were discussed at the meeting.

The support of GERB and MRF is under the following conditions:

• Lukoil's derogation: the derogation for Russian oil imports will be removed prematurely in two steps - from 1 January the export quotas will be stopped, and from 1 March 2024 the import and processing of Russian oil will be permanently stopped.
• Budget 2024: Opportunities have been found to meet all the demands of GERB-UDF and MRF groups in terms of revenues and expenditures, said Desislava Atanasova.

1. Revenues will be reduced by 2.4 billion, which is the estimated planned contribution to the gas fee.
2. There will be a list of priority national investment projects, which includes Struma Motorway, Hemus Motorway, etc.
3. A priority list of investments for municipalities has also been agreed and will form an integral part of the budget.
4. The ceiling for taking on state debt has been adjusted by about one billion BGN.

• A demonstration of the Euro-Atlantic majority: the GERB have received guarantees from WCC-DB that there will be no cases in the future in which any of the two parliamentary groups will vote together with “Vazrazhdane”, the BSP and “There is Such a People” in plenary chamber.

With the agreed changes in the budget, the planned capital expenditure is reduced by about BGN 2 billion, which is the planned contribution due from Gazprom for the transit fee. Thus, the capital expenditure becomes just under BGN 10 billion, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said.

"We will revise the budget in this form so that it passes through the small and large tripartite and is discussed by the Council of Ministers.

The solution found for the derogation is useful for the Bulgarian citizens, because on the one hand it stops the exports and the money going to Russia, on the other hand it ensures that there will be no shocks on the domestic fuel market.

We had a frank discussion with our colleagues from GERB about the fact that neither they nor we should form a majority in the National Assembly with BSP and "Vazrazhdane", because this leads to unhealthy processes and loss of trust", commented Assen Vassilev.

MRF are also happy with what was agreed.

"We are satisfied that we were heard on stopping this export of profits to Russia. This formula that we have found will satisfy the Bulgarian citizens and the market, but it will stop the export of funds to Russia and the financing of the war. The government stays!", said Yordan Tsonev.