1. Bulgaria – Capital Budgeting And Fiscal Institutions

2. Capital expenditures and public investments in GDP and in total government expenditures
The total expenditures under the consolidated fiscal program for 2019 (including the contribution in the EU budget) are ,0 BGN million which constitutes 38,2% of GDP (GDP for 2019 is ,7 BGN million);
The capital expenditures under the consolidated fiscal program for 2019 are ,9 BGN million (57,7% under the national budget and 42,3% under the EU funds accounts) which constitutes 5,6% of GDP and 14,8% of total expenditures;
The consolidated fiscal program includes the expenditures under the state budget, under the budgets of the State Social Insurance and the National Health Insurance Fund, under the budgets of the municipalities and under the budgets of other autonomous budget organizations and other separate bodies.

3. Legal and institutional responsibility for capital budgeting and public investment
The Public Finance Act does not contain provisions on the application of capital budgeting;
The legislation contains specific rules and procedures on the processes for selection and management of investment projects in the public sector – the Public Procurement Act, the Concessions Act, the Management of Resources from the European Structural and Investment Funds Act;
The budget organizations plan their capital expenditures within the budget procedure according to the given by the Minister of Finance guidelines;
The management organs of the Operational Programs plan capital expenditures for projects financed by EU funds accounts.

4. Role of Ministry of Finance related to capital budget and public investment 
collects and analyzes information on capital expenditures at central and local level;
makes an assessment of the forecasts of the first-level spending units and monitoring of the execution of the consolidated fiscal program;
the assessments of the forecasts include a comparison of the budget proposals with the fiscal framework, the availability of resources and the government priorities;
develops projections of revenues, expenditures, budget relations and other indicators under the budgets of the first-level spending units and makes proposals on the amount of revenues, expenditures and other indicators.

5. Objectives of the Fiscal Council
The objectives of the Fiscal Council are (Law on the Fiscal Council and Automatic Correction Mechanisms):
increase of the quality of the official macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts through an impartial evaluation based on objective criteria (Requirement of Directive 85/EC/ The macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts for fiscal planning shall be subject to regular, unbiased and comprehensive evaluation based on objective criteria, including ex post evaluation.);
increase of the transparency and information of society for fiscal governance of the country - (Requirement of Directive 85/EC/ The result of that evaluation shall be made public and taken into account appropriately in future macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts.);
independent surveillance and analysis of the budgetary framework in order to support sustainable public finances.

6. Functions of the Fiscal Council (I)
The functions of the Fiscal Council are (Law on the Fiscal Council and Automatic Correction Mechanisms):
monitoring for the compliance with numerical fiscal rules (both under the consolidated fiscal program and for the General government sector);
preparation of a motivated opinion and recommendations on the spring and autumn macroeconomic forecasts of the Minister of Finance up to 10 days after their publishing on the web site of the MoF;
preparation of a motivated opinion and recommendations on the draft state budget law, on the draft State Social Insurance and National Health Insurance Fund laws, on the draft laws on their amendment, on the draft medium-term budgetary forecast,as well as on other strategic documents of the Council of Ministers related to the compliance with the numerical fiscal rules;
preparation of a motivated opinion on the reports for the execution of the state budget, of the budgets of the State Social Insurance and National Health Insurance Fund.

7. Functions of the Fiscal Council (II)
The functions of the Fiscal Council are (Law on the Fiscal Council and Automatic Correction Mechanisms):
preparation of motivated opinions on the risks for the sustainability of public finances;
periodical preparation of an impartial and overall evaluation of macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts of the MoF, including an ex-post evaluation;
recommendation to the Minister of Finance to take the necessary action to correct the deviation if the evaluation detects a significant deviation affecting macroeconomic forecasts from report data over a period of at least 4 consecutive years (Requirement of Directive 85/EC/ If the evaluation detects a significant bias affecting macroeconomic forecasts over a period of at least 4 consecutive years, the Member State concerned shall take the necessary action and make it public.).

8. Structure of the Fiscal Council
The Fiscal Council consists of five members, including a chairman who are elected by the National Assembly;
The members of the Council are elected for 6 years. One person cannot be elected more then two consecutive times;
The members of the Council should have a master degree in economics and at least 10 years professional experience in the area of economic analysis and/or the governance of public finances.

9. Main Statements of the Fiscal Council
Statement on the Draft State Budget Law for 2019 and the Updated Medium- term Budgetary Forecast for the period :
The macroeconomic forecast is in line with the current expectations for the development of the international economic environment;
Fiscal rules under the Public Finance Act are respected in the budget forecast, which is a factor for achieving a sound budgetary position and good fiscal governance;
The Fiscal Council assesses positively the downward trend in the share of government expenditure according to the economic cycle;
Failure to meet capital expenditure plans due to delays in the realization of investment projects co-financed under the EU Operational Programmes indicates a serious delay in the absorption of EU funds and a possible risk of losing such funds.

10. Thank you!