Twenty years after the fall of the Eastern European block, the transition to a social market democracy has been disappointing. The drastic overhaul of the social-insurance, pension, and health-care systems have sown enormous personal insecurity. The country’s radical and extensive privatisation and economic restructuring have led to systemic impoverishment. According to the European Commission Report of March 2013, 49% of the total population and 52% of the children were in 2011 at risk of poverty or social exclusion. For pensioners aged over 65 the situation is markedly worse with the people at risk amounting to 61%. Actually, the economic crisis has escalated into a political one.
English: http://www.euspeak.eu/bulgarias-rebellions-of-the-hungry-and-the-struggle ...
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.