The Economic and Social Council (ESC) of Bulgaria adopted on 10^th March 2011 a Resolution on the Draft National Reform Programme (NRP), in implementation of the “Europe 2020” Strategy. The paper was sent to the stakeholders in Bulgaria, the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Commission. The Council stated that main recommendations and proposals included in the Resolution were concerned in the current version of the NRP (2011-2015) and expressed its willingness for further constructive dialogue with the responsible representatives of the government.

As a result of this, on 25^th March 2011, the ESC Plenary session held a consultation meeting with the Head of the NRP Working Group, Marinela Petrova from the Ministry of Finance and the Deputy Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, Mariy Kosev.

In her statement Mrs. Petrova noted that to a great extent the recommendations and proposals of the ESC Resolution were presented in the renewed version of the National Reform Programme (2011-2015). The structure of the Programme has been improved, the macroeconomic scenario has been differentiated and developed with a time horizon to 2015. Thus better coordination among the various parts of the document has been achieved and thereby guaranteeing sufficient synergy between policies and measures for restoring and stimulating growth and these for achieving the five national objectives. The working team has taken under consideration and other constructive proposals of the ESC with the consequence that key measures were outlined in short- and long- term, measures and objectives were bound, especially regarding the labour market and education; infrastructure has been identified as a major growth factor.

During the discussion, the President of the ESC, Prof. Lalko Dulevski and the Council members drew attention again to the policies and measures on employment and education, which have to be complied with the pace of economic growth and to recognize the consequences of the demographic development in Bulgaria. Over the next few years a focus should be on the measures for reducing the number of school dropouts in order to achieve the necessary quality of the human capital of the country.

The Council stressed once again on the need of achieving a public consensus on defining one national strategic objective by 2020. The Council members drew attention to the working team that the policies and objectives of health reform and the education reform should be a priority for the country by 2020.