Bulgaria's National Assembly approved after long debates the draft budget for 2007on first reading.

The Parliament's Economic Policy Committee chairman Yordan Tsonev said that Bulgaria's European integration defined the priorities in budget 2007. The budget policy was strong enough to provide economic growth, he said.

MP Kostadin Paskalev, member of the leftist Coalition for Bulgaria, said that budget 2007 as 'an European budget.’ It was the first budget for the past 17 years that really took into consideration social conditions and improvements.

National Movement Simeon II (NMSII) MP and former finance minister Milen Velchev said that Bulgaria's fiscal policy and budget 2007 would contribute to the improvement of standards of living in Bulgaria.

The country's GDP rose by a third for the past six years, while in the European Union the average GDP growth was only a fourth, said he.

Bulgaria would be 'tax champion' in 2007, due to the corporate tax decrease to 10 per cent, Velchev said.

Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) leader Ivan Kostov said that budget 2007 "laid on unreal base". The government set easy goals to register high accomplishment of he tasks, he said.