OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies: Bulgaria 2025

1. Main Assessment

1.1. The labour market and social situation in Bulgaria

1.1.1. The Bulgarian labour market has made significant progress, but demographic trends pose significant challenges

The Bulgarian labour market has made significant progress over the last 10 years. The employment rate rose from below 60% in the early 2010s to 70.1% just before the COVID‑19 pandemic and, after temporary headwinds from the pandemic, to 71% in the second quarter of 2024 (against 70.3% on average in the OECD). Other labour market indicators, especially labour market participation and the unemployment rate, also improved in the past decade. Today, Bulgaria performs in line with the OECD average in employment, unemployment and labour force participation.

Despite these improvements, the Bulgarian labour market, and economy more generally, face major challenges, including very rapid population ageing. As of 2024, 22% of the population is over 65 years (OECD average: 19%), and this share is set to rise to 29% over the next 20 years and to 34% by 2060 (OECD average: 30%). In addition to ageing rapidly, the Bulgarian population is predicted to shrink markedly, especially the working-age population, with major implications for the labour market. According to current projections, the number of 15‑64 year‑olds will fall by almost one‑third between today and 2060, which risks exacerbating labour and skill shortages and undermining the innovative potential of the Bulgarian economy. Especially attracting skilled workers is already a problem today, more so than in most OECD countries.

High emigration has contributed to population decline and ageing as Bulgaria has traditionally been an emigration country. In 2015/16, over 1 million individuals born in Bulgaria were living in an OECD country, compared to a population of about 7 million people living in Bulgaria. Emigrants tend to be prime working-age (25‑54 years-old), which means emigration contributes to a hollowing out of the population age distribution. Since 2020, however, the net migration rate has turned positive in Bulgaria, as the COVID‑19 pandemic led to a sharp decline in emigration and an increase in return migration. Continuing this trend of re‑attracting Bulgarian emigrants is an objective of Bulgarian policy to counteract population decline and ageing.

1.1.2. Large disparities in the Bulgarian labour market persist, and informality looms large

Despite the significant progress of the Bulgarian labour market, pronounced disparities are a persisting challenge. Regional differences are stark, with the labour market booming in Sofia and other economically prosperous parts of the country, but remote and poor regions faring far less well, in terms of both employment rates and wage levels. In addition, there is a significant divide between high and low earners, with the highest 10% earning 4.8 times more than the lowest 10%, against 3.4 times more on average in the OECD, and young and low-educated people lag behind in Bulgaria’s labour market. In 2023, only 19% of 15‑24 year‑olds were in work, less than half the OECD average, and only 51% of people with low educational attainment had a job, against 91% of people with high educational attainment.

Conversely, the employment gender gap is smaller than in most OECD countries, at 7 percentage points in Bulgaria against 14 points in the OECD. The comparatively good position of women in the Bulgarian labour market also translates into a high share of women in senior and mid-management positions and a narrow gender wage gap that is smaller than in any OECD country.

Informality, and especially undeclared work, are widespread in Bulgaria, undermining job quality and the financing of the social security system. While the size of the informal economy is difficult to measure with precision, available indicators point to a high prevalence of informal activities and undeclared work compared to OECD and other EU countries. For example, undeclared work was estimated to account for 24% of Bulgaria’s Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2019, more than twice the EU average of 11%.

1.1.3. Despite progress, poverty remains widespread and life satisfaction is low

Incomes have increased in Bulgaria but remain low in comparison to most OECD countries. In 2021, the median equivalised household income stood at the equivalent of USD 15 900 (USD PPP), half the average level in the OECD. At the same time, inequality is elevated, leading to high poverty rates and material deprivation. Despite improvements, severe material deprivation in Bulgaria remains highest among EU members, concerning 19% of the population, three times more than on average in the EU. Older Bulgarians and ethnic minorities are especially vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion.

Bulgaria also systematically ranks last among all EU countries in terms of overall life satisfaction, with dissatisfaction spanning across multiple domains, including financial stability, housing quality, personal relationships, and professional fulfilment. Self-reported levels of life satisfaction are particularly low among older Bulgarians, reflecting high poverty rates and poor health outcomes.

1.1.4. Minorities face social disadvantage and lag behind in the labour market

Minorities in Bulgaria encounter social stigma, affecting their participation in both social life and the labour market. Tolerance, especially towards sexual and ethnic minorities, is lower than in almost all other EU countries. According to 2023 Eurobarometer survey data, almost half (49%) of the Bulgarian population would feel uncomfortable working with a homosexual or bisexual colleague, four times more than on average in the EU (12%); and almost one‑third (31%) would feel uneasy working with a colleague from the Roma community, twice as much as on average in the EU (16%).

Labour market outcomes for minorities for whom data are available are generally poor. Only 22% of the working-age Roma population are employed, against 44% of the Turkish community and 67% of ethnic Bulgarians. Many of those from ethnic minorities who do work are employed in elementary manual occupations, especially in the case of Roma. The poor labour market outcomes of Roma and, to a lesser extent, the Turkish community, are closely linked with low educational attainment: more than 80% of Roma and almost half of the Turkish have no more than lower-secondary education. Limited access to the labour market also extends to other vulnerable groups, notably people with disabilities. In 2022, the disability employment gap stood at 29.5 percentage points in Bulgaria, representing a wider gap than in most other EU countries, comparing to an EU average of 21.4 percentage points. Poor labour market outcomes for minorities contribute to social exclusion, especially in the case of the Roma community. In 2022, 63% of the Roma population were at risk of poverty, far more than among the Turkish community (24%) and ethnic Bulgarians (17%).

1.2. Unlocking the full potential of Bulgaria’s labour market

1.2.1. Recent policy changes to address labour market challenges

Bulgaria has made several changes to its labour market legislation over the last years. The changes touched upon a variety of different topics in employment policy, reflecting Bulgaria’s awareness of the need to develop policies to overcome the challenges facing its labour market, although the scope of some of the changes is relatively limited. Bulgaria amended its Labour Code in 2020, 2022 and 2023, introducing a range of changes including: enhancing the framework for social dialogue by inscribing in the law the state’s obligation to promote social dialogue and extending the range of topics discussed by social partners; combating undeclared work by substantially increasing penalties; introducing an automatic formula to determine the minimum wage, moving away from a discretionary determination. In addition, Bulgarian authorities made several amendments to the Employment Promotion Act (EPA), with a view to strengthen the activation of inactive people and improve the support for out-of-work people. Notably, the EPA introduced data sharing requirements across institutions to identify inactive people and facilitated access to services provided by the Employment Agency (EA).

1.2.2. Upskilling Bulgaria’s ageing workforce

In the context of a rapidly shrinking working-age population and low employment rates among young people and the low-educated, policies to promote workforce training, upskilling and reskilling must be a policy priority for Bulgaria. This includes ensuring that every young person – including young people from ethnic minorities, those with disadvantaged backgrounds and those living in rural or remote areas – completes school with a qualification and with skills that are sought after in the labour market. It also means providing adult workers – both employed and unemployed – with relevant and attractive training options that increase their productivity and wages and help them adapt to changing labour market needs.

Poor educational outcomes of young people are a major concern in Bulgaria and one likely driver of the high share of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). Participation rates in primary and lower-secondary education are below the OECD average, and, if anything, slightly declined over the last decade; nearly one‑in‑three pupils (31%) do not achieve baseline levels of proficiency in the 2022 PISA survey, and disparities in learning outcomes by socio‑economic status and ethnic background are large. The rate of early school leaving lies above the EU average, at 10.5% in 2022.

Addressing the challenges in Bulgaria’s vocational education and training (VET) system plays an important role for improving the school-to-work transition in Bulgaria. About half of upper‑secondary students in Bulgaria are enrolled in vocational programmes, but completion rates are low and have been declining over time. Making vocational education and training more responsive to labour market needs is one area that deserves particular attention. Bulgaria has announced significant efforts to reduce early school leaving and reform and modernise its VET system, and it has taken concrete steps in recent years to strengthen employer involvement in the provision of work‑based learning. One priority area has been the rapid expansion of the dual VET model since its introduction in 2016, to nearly 12 000 students in 2022/23, or around 7% of all initial VET students.

Participation in adult learning is very low in Bulgaria. In 2022, less than 2% of 25‑64 year‑olds took part in adult learning programmes, six times less than on average in the EU (12%). For some groups of workers, including Roma, people with low educational attainment and older workers, participation rates are close to zero. Insufficient adult learning presents a growing challenge for the Bulgarian labour market and overcoming it could in principle be crucial to address labour shortages and foster labour productivity and wages. The lack of adult learning is driven by both limited supply and low demand by workers, many of whom lack motivation. Recognising the central importance of adult learning, several national strategies make a priority of improving adult skills, and Bulgaria has started to take policy action to reinforce adult learning. The EA runs awareness campaigns to increase motivation to participate in adult learning, Bulgaria is planning to provide large‑scale digital skills trainings to 500 000 people (12% of the working-age population) under its National Recovery and Resilience Plan, along with other initiatives, and in 2023 the Council of Ministers paved the way for the use of training vouchers and expanded the target groups eligible for training vouchers to employed, unemployed and inactive people. While the effects of these initiatives remain to be seen, Bulgaria will need to continue facilitating and encouraging participation in adult learning, acting upon both supply and demand of adult learning, and closely monitor the effects of all recent policy action in this field.

1.2.3. Enhancing employment support to assist those excluded from the labour market

Bulgaria has significantly improved the provision of active labour market policies (ALMPs) over the last years, but further efforts are necessary to ensure effective and efficient employment support. Currently, Bulgaria spends about 0.21% of its GDP on ALMPs, well below the OECD average of 0.45%, and there is scope for additional investment in this field. ALMPs in Bulgaria are still heavily focused on direct job creation programmes, which account for more than half of ALMP spending; other types of programmes, including training programmes that would help up-skill the Bulgarian labour force, are less widely used. Bulgaria offers tailored support to vulnerable groups, including Roma workers and young NEETs, but a large pool of inactive people remains out of reach for Bulgarian authorities. In practice, the provision of employment support is challenged by heavy working processes for EA staff, mostly due to outdated technical equipment and cumbersome working procedures, leading to a substantial loss in efficiency. Bulgarian authorities are currently actively working to alleviate this problem and modernise the EA and its National Database under Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Plan.

1.2.4. Fostering social dialogue and expanding worker representation

Bulgaria has a sound framework of social dialogue in place. At national level, social partners participate in the National Council for Tripartite Co‑operation (NCTC), and there are about 50 branch councils for co‑operation at sectoral level, district councils, about 80 councils for social co‑operation at the municipal level and special commissions at company level. Consultations with social partners precede any legislative changes in labour relations and social security, and it has become standard practice in recent years to invite social partners early on to join expert working groups tasked with drafting legislation. However, political instability, and the Bulgarian Parliament’s difficulties to form a stable coalition, have posed challenges for social dialogue in recent years. Collective bargaining coverage is low, with estimates pointing to a coverage of less than 30% of the workforce and a stagnant trend, in line with Central and Eastern European OECD countries.

Bulgaria rapidly increased its minimum wage amid strong wage growth over the last years. The nominal minimum wage almost tripled between 2014 and 2024, but remained fairly stable in relation to the median wage, at ratio slightly above 50%, close to the OECD average of 55% in 2022. However, due to stark geographic wage differentials in Bulgaria, the minimum wage is much closer to the median wage in poorer regions, where the wages are lower. The minimum wage is set at the national level and is identical for workers in all regions and all sectors. Up until 2023, it was fixed by the Council of Ministers on a discretionary basis following public discussion, interinstitutional consultations, and discussions with social partners in the National Council for Tripartite Co‑operation. However, a change to the Labour Code in 2023 introduced an automatic formula for the minimum wage, setting it to 50% of the average wage over the previous four quarters. While consultations with the social partners still take place, the new regulation sparked opposition by employer organisations, fearing that it might undermine the role of the social partners in wage setting. The new indexation method came into effect for the first time to set the minimum wage for 2024, leading to a nominal increase by 20% compared to 2023 in a context of very high inflation. As a large proportion of workers earns the minimum wage, strong minimum wage increases above productivity growth can pose a challenge for the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy.

1.2.5. Continuing efforts to combat informality

Bulgaria uses a combination of controls, legislative measures and information campaigns to reduce informality. The measures are showing results but need to be maintained and reinforced to effectively address the problem. In 2022, the Labour Inspectorate controlled close to 35 000 enterprises, with 90% of controls targeting small or micro enterprises. These inspections, which are in some cases conducted in co‑operation with other public authorities, have an impact on the behaviour of employers, reducing undeclared work. Authorities have taken action to further strengthen the capacity of the Labour Inspectorate and have increased staff by 20% between late 2022 and early 2024. In addition, Bulgaria added both preventive and punitive measures to its labour legislation, introducing special contracts for short-term seasonal workers in the agricultural sector to reduce the administrative burden on employers, and increasing penalties for companies and workers engaging in undeclared work. Bulgaria also runs information campaigns about informality and undeclared work, which are important considering the very low level of awareness about the topic. Nevertheless, informality is still prevalent and Bulgaria will need to continue its efforts to combat the problem effectively.

1.3. Making migration and integration work in Bulgaria

Bulgaria has traditionally been more of a sending and transit, than a destination country. In 2021, 2.9% of the Bulgarian population was foreign-born, compared with 10.8% of the total OECD population. Only four OECD countries had a lower share of immigrants than Bulgaria. This represents nevertheless more than 2.5 times the share in 2011, when 1.1% of the population in Bulgaria was foreign-born, and 9.4% of the OECD population.

Inflows of people in all migration categories increased sharply in the last ten years: labour migration inflows increased more than ten‑fold and family migration more than doubled. Furthermore, humanitarian migration is at record levels. From 2021 to 2023, Bulgaria received close to 54 000 asylum requests. This is more than in 2014‑16 at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe. In addition, Bulgaria also received a large inflow of Ukrainian humanitarian migrants in 2022/23. In December 2023, 51 860 Ukrainians were recorded to be in Bulgaria, corresponding to eight Ukrainian refugees per thousand of inhabitants, above the 4.2 average in the OECD area.

1.3.1. Aligning labour migration policies with the national strategy on migration

Despite the recent inflows, there has been little national migration policy development in the past decade. Bulgaria has mainly focused on transposing EU directives into national legislation. In terms of labour migration, the main goal of migration policy in Bulgaria until the mid‑2010s was to protect the local labour market. This changed in 2016 when the Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act marked a policy shift towards an opening of Bulgaria to labour migration. Recruitment from abroad has been successively simplified, and there are currently few restrictions to labour migration. There are no quotas and no labour market tests. Given the increased labour migration flows, which are likely to increase once Bulgaria fully joins the Schengen Area, Bulgaria will need to monitor labour migration more closely in the future.

The measures to attract and retain international students and high-skilled migrants in Bulgaria are limited. Bulgaria’s attraction efforts have been geared towards ethnic Bulgarians abroad. In the past few years, Bulgaria has successively simplified hiring through the EU Blue Card as a main channel to attract high-skilled migration. Even though attracting skilled migrants is a main objective of the National Strategy on Migration, there is no comprehensive plan to do so.

1.3.2. Designing a comprehensive integration policy

The large number of asylum requests in the past few years has strained the reception conditions in Bulgaria. The budget of the State Agency for Refugees has been insufficient to keep reception centres in good working order and the number of staff is too limited to provide the necessary support to asylum seekers. Moreover, the number of unaccompanied minors requesting asylum in Bulgaria is at record levels, which requires additional resources for reception and integration. Out of the 23 000 asylum seekers who arrived in Bulgaria in 2023, nearly 4 000 were unaccompanied minors.

Bulgaria has no integration programme for beneficiaries of international protection. In contrast, most OECD countries have developed integration instruments specific to humanitarian migrants, albeit of varying scale and scope. In Bulgaria, beneficiaries of international protection have the same rights, and access to the same support, as nationals. However, there has been no national integration programme targeted at this vulnerable population since 2014. Support is exclusively provided by international and non‑governmental organisations.

More broadly, integration policy is not a priority in Bulgaria. There is no integration strategy and no funds from the state budget allocated to integration. Given the recent increase in the immigrant population, the lack of an integration policy will become more problematic. Moreover, the labour market outcomes of immigrants in Bulgaria compare poorly with those of immigrants in OECD countries, making integration policy all the more necessary.

1.3.3. Developing a national strategy for Bulgarians abroad

Over 1.3 million individuals born in Bulgaria were living in an OECD country in 2020, according to preliminary OECD estimates. In spite of having a large diaspora, Bulgaria has no general legislative act nor organisational structure that implements a national policy related to Bulgarians abroad. Bulgarian diaspora policy has been focused on the promotion of Bulgarian culture and identity, mainly through a network of Bulgarian Sunday schools abroad.

In the past few years, the return of Bulgarians from abroad has become more of a policy priority. Encouraging Bulgarian emigrants to return and make use of their skills acquired abroad is increasingly perceived as a tool to counteract population ageing and address skills shortages. Currently, there is no comprehensive outreach policy for Bulgarians abroad, no national programme to attract and re‑integrate them, and no tax incentives to encourage return migration. On the other hand, Bulgaria regularly organises career fairs to attract Bulgarians abroad and has just recently approved a promising new programme to attract both skilled Bulgarian emigrants and immigrants. The programme will include integration support along different dimensions, such as support in finding employment, rent support, and Bulgarian language classes for foreign citizens.

1.4. Effective social support for vulnerable households in Bulgaria

1.4.1. The redistributive effects of taxes and social transfers

Public social expenditure levels in Bulgaria are comparable to those in many OECD countries. In 2019, i.e. before the COVID‑19 crisis, Bulgaria spent about 16.5% of its GDP on cash benefits and social and health services. This is below the OECD average of 20.1%, but comparable to the shares spent in the Baltic countries, Hungary and the Slovak Republic. Compared to these countries, Bulgaria dedicates a relatively large share of its GDP to pensions (7.5% in 2019), and relatively little to working-age income support (2.9%), notably social assistance and – to a lesser extent – unemployment benefits.

As a result of this benefit structure, the Bulgarian income support system is not very effective at boosting the incomes of the most vulnerable households. Taxes and transfers reduce the share of people living below the poverty line by less than half, from 30.2% to 16.5% in 2021. Across OECD countries on average, the poverty-reducing effect of taxes and transfers equals nearly 60%, and it is much higher than that in many European OECD countries. The overall redistributive capacity of the Bulgarian tax and benefit system is also low, a consequence also of Bulgaria flat‑rate 10% income tax with no individual tax‑free allowance. The interplay of large inequalities in market incomes and weak redistribution explains Bulgaria’s high inequality in disposable household incomes. Bulgaria could consider reforming its tax and benefit system to increase progressivity and tackle high income inequalities, though care must be taken that such a reform does not raise the incentives to under-declare wages. According to a recent Eurobarometer survey, 93% of respondents agreed, or strongly agreed, with the statement that income differences are too large in Bulgaria, and 87% felt that the government should take measures to reduce income differences.

1.4.2. Improving support for out-of-work people and vulnerable households

Workers in Bulgaria who lose their job are protected from income losses through a single‑tier, contributory unemployment insurance benefit. The benefit level is comparatively high, at 77% of the previous net income for an average wage earner (OECD average just below 60%), and stable over the benefit spell. The maximum benefit duration is short, however, and only about half of all jobseekers receive benefits. The short maximum benefit duration and relatively low coverage have been causing challenges for the income insecurity of some jobless households, in particular as Bulgaria’s main minimum‑income benefit comes with a waiting period. Bulgaria plans to raise the maximum duration of unemployment benefits from a minimum of four to at least six months for all recipient groups in line with a recommendation from the last OECD Economic Survey, though a timeline for this change has not yet been communicated.

Low-income households in Bulgaria who struggle to make ends meet from own resources may be entitled to different types of minimum-income support: a non‑contributory social assistance cash benefit, payable, in principle, for an unlimited duration; a means-tested heating allowance, paid once per year to a broader range of low‑income households; and an income‑tested monthly child allowance for low‑income households with children. Through a reform of the Social Assistance Act in mid‑2023, Bulgaria significantly raised the level of social assistance benefits, but benefit adequacy remains low. For a single person without other forms of income, minimum-income benefits more than doubled from 11% to 24% of the median equivalised disposable household income, still substantially below the OECD average of 36%. For a couple with two young children benefit payments increase by about two‑thirds, from 17% to around 28% of the median equivalised disposable household income. The reform also somewhat loosened the previously very strict eligibility criteria, including by: cutting the waiting period for social assistance receipt from six to three months; reducing the compulsory community service requirement from 56 to 40 hours per month; and easing the previously harsh benefit sanctions. Low payment levels and tight eligibility criteria primarily reflect policy makers’ concerns about low‑income households’ lack of incentives to seek formal employment, particularly for families with many children. However, evidence also suggests that they contribute to substantial benefit non‑take‑up and undermined the effectiveness of income support. Bulgaria could improve living conditions among the most vulnerable households and better promote their labour market integration by further shortening the waiting period, easing community work requirements, and ensuring instead a more systematic activation of benefit recipients through the EA.

A policy priority in Bulgaria in recent years has been the reform of social services, which are managed at municipal level and financed through the municipal or state budget. Through a new Social Services Act, which entered into force in July 2020, Bulgaria regulated the planning, financing, supervision and monitoring of social services with a view to improving the quality and efficiency of service provision. Bulgaria is currently preparing, for the first time, a National Social Services Map of state‑funded social services that will serve as the basis for a countrywide needs assessment and the planning of the provision of social and integrated health and services over the next decade.

1.4.3. A recent reform increased the financial sustainability of the pension system, but pension adequacy remains a challenge

Bulgaria has a three‑pillar pension system combining fully-funded and pay-as-you-go components. Pillar I is a mandatory public defined-benefit pay-as-you-go pillar covering all employees while Pillar II is an auto‑enrolment, fully-funded defined-contribution pillar and pillar III is a fully-funded defined-contribution pillar for voluntary supplementary pensions. Pillar II was initially mandatory for every employed or self-employed person born after 1959, but as in other Central and Eastern European countries, Bulgaria partially backtracked on its shift towards a diversified pension system consisting of pay-as-you-go and funded parts, introducing the possibility to opt out of Pillar II and channel all contributions to Pillar I. Bulgaria underwent a major pension reform in 2015 to strengthen the financial sustainability of the pension system, most notably by introducing a gradual rise and an equalisation of the statutory retirement age to 65 for both men and women, and by increasing the pension contribution rate. These measures improved the financial viability of the system, even though future efforts might be necessary to guarantee financial sustainability in the long-term. Facilitating longer working lives plays a key role in this context. Future theoretical net pension replacement rates for average‑wage earners are well above the OECD average, but pension adequacy remains an issue because low wage levels, a low degree of redistribution within the pension system, and limited pension entitlements among current retirees weigh on pension levels.

Box 1.1. Main policy recommendations for Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Government is invited to consider the following items as part of its strategy to cope with the demographic challenge, raise employment, job quality and wages, and improve inclusiveness and living standards, including for vulnerable groups:

Enhancing employment opportunities and reducing labour market disparities

• Intensify efforts to reduce informality by further extending controls, legislative measures creating incentives to declare wages and economic activities and information campaigns until informality rates drop to consistently low levels.

• Promote the employment of groups that currently lag behind in the labour market, including young people, ethnic minorities, and older and low-skilled workers by increasing outreach to these groups and tailoring active policy measures to their needs.

Upskilling Bulgaria’s ageing workforce

• Continue ongoing efforts to modernise upper-secondary vocational education and training, notably by increasing the responsiveness of the VET programme offer and contents to local labour market needs, improving data collection on programme performance, and further strengthening employer involvement in the provision of work-based learning.

• Raise participation rates in adult learning significantly towards the OECD average, particularly for lower-skilled workers and minority groups. Monitor the results of recent initiatives and use the results to adapt and expand the programmes to encourage lifelong learning and upskilling.

Aligning migration programmes with policy objectives

• Develop a comprehensive Action Plan with a set of concrete measures to implement Bulgaria’s migration policy objectives as defined in the National Strategy on Migration.

• Take advantage of the existing permit framework (Blue Card and others) to develop programmes to attract migrants with the skills needed in the Bulgarian labour market.

• Monitor and evaluate all labour migration channels to ensure that they continue to be aligned with policy objectives.

Improving the reception of asylum seekers and the integration of immigrants

• Urgently increase the resources for reception of asylum seekers to reverse the deterioration of the standard of services provided.

• Improve preparedness by establishing an early warning system for large‑scale inflows and ensure that reception services can be scaled up to deal with spikes in asylum requests and wound down without losing core capacity in low-demand periods.

• Reintroduce a strategy for the integration of immigrants drawing on good practice from OECD countries, including publicly funded host country language courses and procedures for the recognition of foreign qualifications.

• Upgrade the diaspora policy and co‑ordinate across agencies. Monitor the dynamics of Bulgarian emigration – temporary and circular movements – and accordingly adapt policies. Build on recent efforts to promote the return of Bulgarian emigrants and invest in their (re)integration.

Improving the labour market and social inclusion of minority groups

• Continue to prioritise the socio‑economic integration of the Roma community and other ethnic minorities by increasing the funds available for initiatives targeted at the Roma community and other ethnic minorities (e.g. Roma mediators), thoroughly evaluating the effects of these initiatives and extending measures that successfully improve their socio‑economic situation.

• Intensify the fight against discrimination of minorities, including LGBTQI people, by strictly and systematically enforcing the ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and by launching public awareness campaigns to reduce social stigma.

Tackling poverty, raising living standards and improving social services

• Reforming the tax and benefit system to increase progressivity and tackle high income inequalities.

• Take additional steps to raise the accessibility of minimum-income benefits, e.g. by further shortening the waiting period and easing community work requirements while simultaneously ensuring a more systematic activation of employable benefit recipients through the Employment Agency.

• Continue efforts to reform social services by mapping the availability and quality of, and demand for, social services at local level, and taking steps to secure sufficient financing and building capacity in communities where service delivery is patchy.

• Continue ongoing efforts to expand the availability of quality early childhood education and care and long-term care services to reduce the high unpaid-work burden on women and improve living standards of frail and senior people.

• Consider further reforms of the pension system to extend working lives and improve pension adequacy, notably through steps to further discourage early retirement and facilitate gradual retirement, while avoiding policy reversal and abrupt policy changes to ensure long-term predictability.