The Bulgarian labor unions have been dealing with the topic related to gray economy, informal employment and non-registered jobs for a long time. One day ago one of Bulgaria’s biggest syndicates the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) presented a year project to combat gray economy mainly in four sectors: trade and repair of automobiles and training of drivers, light industry, construction and agriculture. CITUB underlined that gray economy affects negatively the market, the state treasury, has negative impact on the social security system and influences the labor, social, health and syndical rights of the employees. Trade and repair of automobiles and training of drivers is among the sectors with highest risks, where gray business and non-regulated employment may cost human lives. It is about time to adopt a common regulation that would be observed by the whole sector and will be beneficial to the small and the large dealers of automobiles and car parts on the Bulgarian market, the Chairman of UNION AUTOSERVICE Emil Germanov said and added:

Auto service is not subject to any regulation in Bulgaria, which makes the import of a wide range of illegal auto parts possible. Moreover, some auto services are working without the necessary license and the levels of non-regulated employment there are high. Most of them do not follow the requirements of the manufacturers and do not bear any responsibility for the quality of the repairs and maintenance works. They do not observe the health and safety regulations either. The new draft related to the auto services envisages the creation of a public registry of all automobile repairs. Thus, the ones who do this job will bear certain responsibility. UNION AUTOSERVICE represents the small and medium business and we are different from the Association of Automobile Importers. However, gray economy affects all of us, because it impedes fair competition.

According to data collected and analyzed by UNION AUTOSERVICE, the Bulgarians drive the oldest cars in Europe. The number of registered automobiles in Bulgaria exceeds 4.2 million, data of the National Police General Directorate shows. Nearly 3.5 million of them are ten years old or older and over half a million cars are twenty years old or older. Between 300,000 and 310,000 vehicles are registered in Bulgaria each year. Only 10% of them are new vehicles. Bulgaria has the highest road fatality rate in the whole EU, which is also due to the high number of old and badly maintained vehicles. Soon, we are going to witness huge import of diesel vehicles from Western Europe, Emil Germanov says.

The export of diesel vehicles from Germany increased with 20% in one year only to 239,641 cars, the analysis of the Association of European Businesses reads. Most diesel cars are exported to Ukraine, Croatia and Bulgaria (+27.7%).What should we expect – higher air pollution or increased imports of new automobiles? Here is Emil Germanov’s forecast:

We can expect increased imports of vehicles with Euro 6 emissions standard (the highest environmental standard in the EU) soon. Germany has started to abandon this emissions standard and banned diesel cars in some cities. As a result, the people who leased such vehicles return them when their leasing expires, because they are not able to use them. Thus, the car dealerships start selling these vehicles mainly in countries which do not place restrictions on the market of diesel cars. Most second-hand vehicles sold in Bulgaria are seven to ten years old. However, the diesel vehicles which are now banned in Western Europe are even newer- three to four years old. On one hand, this is good for the Bulgarian market of diesel cars, but their price is still higher than what most Bulgarian buyers can afford. Such vehicles cost between EUR 28,000-30,000 and the new ones cost nearly EUR 60,000-70,000. Perhaps we will start importing them when their price falls to EUR 20,000. I believe that this will be good for our country, because Euro 6 is a very high emissions standard and is environmentally friendly. We cannot compare a three year old vehicle with a twenty year old car.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov