Parliamentary Defence Committee Approves the Budget for Defence 2017

Politics » DOMESTIC | November 15, 2016, Tuesday // 14:02
Bulgaria: Parliamentary Defence Committee Approves the Budget for Defence 2017 File photo, BGNES

Parliamentary Defence Committee approves BGN 1.6 B for modernization and filling vacancies at the Bulgarian army.

However, lawmakers in the Committee are still not sure that these funds will be enough to achieve their intentions, according to Bulgarian National Radio.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) did not support the decision of the Budget Commitee. The DPS said that the Defence Ministry should have more money and according to the statements of the BSP they cannot see any guarantees that the project for new fighter jets and ships will ever be implemented.

It is possible to use BGN 402M for the projects but the money will come from the central budget of Bulgaria, not from the Ministry of Defence. The BSP insisted the money should not be granted unless the projects starts working. Lawmakers from the center-left political party Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) also said that unless the projects were alredy running until April 2017, they can become compromised.

The Ministry of Defence also reported a problem with vacancies at the military which number 5500, according to the latest data. Тhis has become a reason for their request for additional  BGN 11 M for hiring 500 more people.

The increase in the defence budget for next year is about BGN 78.08 M but they will be used for social payments, not for modernization of the armed forces.

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Tags: Bulgaria, Bulgarian Armed Forces, modernization

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