The Commission on Protection of Competition has cancelled the Ministry of Economy’s initiative “Available to you” which aimed to lower the prices of around 50 products from the small consumer basket at chain stores.
The initiative was supposed to have been launched on 1 November. According to the regulator, the initiative will result in restricting price competition among traders and is a violation of the constitutional principles of free economic initiative. The Commission is recommending “providing individual food packages and a warm lunch” as a way of coping with the increase in prices.
“The initiative is good, it is European and does not distort competition in any way, but it is very much delayed – by one year,” Assoc. Prof. Ognyan Boyukliev from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences’ Economic Research Institute commented for the BNR. “It is a good thing there will be no price caps. Price caps were put in place in Hungary that have already been done away with because they led to shortages,” Assoc. Prof. Ognyan Boyukliev said.
The Ministry of Economy said that they would not give up the initiative aimed at achieving better prices for consumers. "We have created a basis for competition between the various participants in the initiative for these 50 essential products," Minister of Economy Bogdan Bogdanov said in a televised interview. According to him, talks on the topic between the ministry and the Commission for the Protection of Competition are forthcoming.
Vice President Iliana Iotova pointed out that the changed texts in the Constitution have turned against their creators. Yotova told journalists that "because of these changes in the Constitution, the Speaker of the National Assembly cannot be..
New car sales in Bulgaria in October increased three times more than the average for the European Union , where the purchase of new cars is only 1.1%. According to the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers, 75.9% of cars registered in..
77 per cent of those employed in Bulgaria's secondary education system are ready to go out on strike demanding a pay rise in the sector, according to a national survey by Podkrepa trade union. Half of those surveyed are in favour of a nation-wide..
“It’s time to lift internal border controls now,” European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson believes. In an interview with RFE/RL she..
The Constitutional Court has opened a case following the request by President Rumen Radev for the amendments to the Constitution, endorsed by the 49 th..
Romania and Bulgaria have a chance to join the Schengen area by land as of January 2025 , Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pinter said after an..
Mostly Cloudy
Partly cloudy, chance of rain
Partly Cloudy
Partly cloudy, chance of snow