• I. VALUES, PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES
• II. LOCAL AND REGIONAL POLICIES
• III. ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM
• IV. ECONOMIC POLICY
• V. AGRARIAN POLICY
• VI. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
• VII. SOCIAL POLICY
• VIII. HEALTH POLICY
• IX. ПPHYSICAL TRAINING AND SPORTS POLICY
• X. YOUTH POLICY
• XI. EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND CULTURE POLICY
• XII. JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS
• XIII. FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL SECURITY

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PROSPERITY AND SECURITY

NEW TIMES

NEW CHALLENGES

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

NEW POLITICAL AND SOCIAL AGREEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT

Created with the free will of millions of Bulgarians to freedom and just life the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) proved to be the successful political force during the period of transition to democracy. Most of our initial objectives were achieved with the UDF’s free will and efforts:

• communist regime was overthrown,
• democratic rights and freedoms are a reality,
• major part of the goods and services is created by the private sector,
• market economy is functioning,
• Bulgaria is a member of NATO and on the threshold of EU membership.

This does not mean that our mission is completed entirely and that the UDF already belongs to history. The truth is that the civilized way of life can not be achieved once and for all. It has to be defended against its opponents and further developed towards the general welfare of the society.

UDF mission was not put to an end with the achievement of political pluralism, market economy and Euro-Atlantic orientation of the country. Anything achieved up to this moment, including our joining NATO and the EU is just ways and means towards the UDF’s far-reaching objective in the name of which the changes were started. Our objective has always been and will always be to achieve sustainable, secure, democratic, free and just life for the Bulgarian citisens and for our country among the European nations. Only developed nations will have a well-deserved place in a united Europe. The economic progress is a condition not only for a more satisfactory present but also for our future being citisens of a state which is the framework of a new and one-of-its-kind allied community.

We have always seen and we shall see this main objective realisable in only one way – through a consistently upheld pragmatic right-wing policy whose qualities are measured by the specific benefits for the society and for every single citisen. We are convinced that there is no more room in Bulgaria for left-wing experiments with ineffective state property, concentrated in a single party government ruling, control and supervision over everybody and everything, and focusing all impacts on the individual person, especially the capable and self-confident one. We are convinced that Bulgaria badly needs and will need to move to the right:

• towards a functioning market economy complying with the conditions of competition in the most developed countries,
• towards enforcement of private property and free initiative,
• towards effective separation and decentralisation of powers,
• towards freedom and rule of law realised by an efficient judicial system,
• towards transparent government,
• towards civil action and participation in the authorities decision-making, and
• towards creating opportunities for the active and self-confident citisens.

VALUES, PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES

VALUES

The UDF places its values in the context of the following, according to us obvious truths:

The individual. Our understanding of the individual is the measure of the common values that we share and an essential reason for our policy. We believe that every personality has irrevocable dignity and which is valued in itself. Every person is different from the other. We accept the difference between people as a value – as a difference between their talents, inclinations, abilities and achievements. We share the knowledge that man is imperfect and makes mistakes. And that there is a possibility for him, making use of his freedom, not to succeed. But every individual is free and worthy exactly because he is capable of making a moral choice. He cannot be treated just as a constituent part of a single unified community. All the people are born with the equal freedom to develop their potential and to build up their happiness the way they choose, and with the equal obligation not to prevent the others from doing so. Naturally people seek a life together and constantly form communities, groups, associations. They are not individual human beings engaged in a war – they are cooperating individuals who at the same time compete with each other in order to urge progress.

The society. The society does not consist of struggling irreconcilable classes or any other enemy groups. Society – these are the people, their families, communities and organisations that they form. Their relations are realised and regulated through a free dialogue enjoying equal rights in search of consensus solutions, creating favourable conditions and goods for the whole socium.

The nation. The nation is a historically created, stable, self-developing community originating from and functioning upon a territory that represents a united, political, economical, social and cultural space. This space includes material and intellectual values which are products of the specific collective originality of its members, regardless of their ethnical, religious, racial, etc. origin. Members of the Bulgarian nation are all its citisens: those who recognize Bulgaria as their motherland; those who cherish and pass to the next generations the spirit of the Bulgarian historical destiny; those who are fluent in Bulgarian to an extent that they all may participate on an equal footing and who are not aspiring after a foreign national identity. Understating the nation as a “socio-cultural or political” community is at the root of the contemporary Bulgarian state structure. Its normal existence depends on the energy, freedom and initiativeness of civil society.

The personality. Personality is a key value for the UDF. The triumph of democratic values depends on keeping its freedom and dignity. This requires the imposition of European values and worldly standards, their socialisation, promotion and protection, their harmony with the universal values and Christian ethics, and also the exposure of any violation of personal dignity, personal interest and the respect to divergence.

The family. The individual is free but he develops himself completely and in full value in the community. In the family the person gives expression of his love, solidarity and mutual responsibility. Supporting the family is an expression of justice because it makes the most essential contribution to the future of the whole community.

The private property. The forces of personal responsibility, of initiative, are mainly connected to property right. Private property is the momentum of development and the condition for the success of the Bulgarian citisens.

The patriotism. Standing up for national positions within the framework of the EU and related to our openness to the world. We understand patriotism as respect for the national cultural and family values and traditional virtues. For us the meaning of the concept “Motherland” is the awareness of our own roots and the assertion of this understanding.

The politics. Politics is a discussion about the mutual future of everybody. That is why everybody participates in politics on an equal footing. No person or group is so unequal to the others to reasonably focus the entire power. The preference for democracy as a method of distributing the power and governance result from this uniformity.

An agreement is to be reached in politics on the objectives of development and the rules for achieving and maintaining them. The rules are being elaborated by all citisens governing the country through their elected representatives. These rules are based on the knowledge of Good and Evil.

The separation of power maintains and imposes rules, order and lawfulness for governing circles, opposition and citisens. This equal footing provides the security which stimulates people to show initiative and produce value.

The state government. People know best what their dreams are. The task of the state government is to ensure the conditions for the realisation of these dreams without disturbing the others, i.e. under rules and laws equal for all. The most important conditions are:

• guarantee that people enjoy the fruits of their labour without being disturbed by anyone. This means maintaining safety and effective justice.
• guarantee that competition – the contest of ideas, approaches and products, is fair and the rules provide equal chances to all.
• guarantee that each individual could fully develop his talents and abilities if he wants. This means creating conditions for the development of education and enlightenment.
• guarantee that people in times of need shall be provided assistance until they are back on their feet. The state is responsible for the creation of such conditions for citisens that will allow overcoming their temporary social difficulties.

The right-wing policy. The society, as described so far, has nothing to do with the socialist and communist views on authoritarian society in which functionaries and administrators manage the development and give instructions to people. That is why since the moment it was created the UDF made a stand against the ex-communist party, the BSP as its main opponent. This is also the reason that from the very beginning of the transition, the UDF has been the engine of change of Bulgaria from an authoritarian society to a society of people equal in their freedom and has been constituted as a party able to transform itself and exercise management in a radically changing world.

Left-wing parties are parties of control. Populist parties making promises for miraculous solutions to all problems are parties of lie. Extreme parties are parties of hatred. Leaders’ parties are authoritative and paternalistic – they obtain their energy from the sacralised figure of their leader and as such they cannot represent the interests of the civil society.

The UDF is not a representative body of interests, classes, clans or groups. The UDF is the party of free people. It is based on the following values:

• the dignity of human being – any personality is endowed with an irrevocable dignity and is valued in itself; the task of the UDF policy is to protect human dignity in everyday life;
• the freedom, responsibility and initiative – the opportunity to choose for yourself what to do and how to achieve it, being responsible for your actions before the common future of all fellow men is the essential feature of the human being and a leading value for the UDF;
• the solidarity by virtue of which people cooperate and help each other, and the community helps those in trouble. Solidarity is a precondition for the creation of a community and for the increase of its prosperity;
• the justice that gives each man his own, as well as equal chances for success – this is the value which supports the common life in the socium, but which has not been achieved in the Bulgarian transition yet;
• the rule of law – the explicit rules and equality in the eye of the law, the foundation of our thinking and political behaviour;
• the security - because the insecurity, arbitrariness and unpredictability make people dependent, frightened and freedomless;
• the tolerance – the respect for different value concepts which are within the framework of law; the readiness to respect people even when they differ in their views and not to invade the area of their individual freedom.

The democratic model in favour of the citisens has become a reality in many countries, but not in ours. It is exactly the model which the UDF proposes, but in a specific modern format. It has as its principles the long tested formulae for the most just and most effective life together. These are the operating principles of freedom in 21st century supported by the UDF, namely:

• free citisens, dependent authorities. Overcoming each monopoly – political, economic or other, restricting the rights of any individual. Protecting the dignity and individual political and economic freedoms;
• free state belonging to the citisens. Essential constitutional reforms eliminating every possibility for seisure and monopolising the power of sovereign citisens through actual allocation and joint control over the authorities elected by the voters, absolute irrevocability of individual freedoms and providing exclusive guarantee for the rights of each citisen and those of the different social groups;
• free civil society. Removing the state power monopoly by means of legislative reforms promoting local authorities, professional guilds, civil participation and other civil sector institutions to the rank of partners in state governance, and also by means of maximum relocation of the government from a commanding political government to public policies administration;
• free market in favour of everyone. The state should be removed as much as possible from administering the market and people’s lives. It should guarantee equal possibilities to all for developing their abilities. Only then public prosperity as well as resources for the fulfillment of the irreversible commitments of the state to disadvantaged groups and those in times of need shall be achieved.
• free civil control over the state. Developing a system for monitoring, civil control and searching direct responsibility over public life sectors which are an exclusive territory of state regulation and where the state should not abdicate – public order, security, national wealth management, privatisation, etc.;
• free courts in favour of the society. A deep judicial reform to terminate political interference in the court’s work. Such a reform should bring new control mechanisms in judicial power, to increase the civil control on the judicial system, to eliminate the full immunity of the supreme holders of this power and to guarantee the irrevocable civil right to just and timely legal proceedings;
• free competition in politics. Utmost increase and stabilisation of the majority selection of Members of Parliament; maximum expansion of direct democracy and participation of civil structures in politics; radical restriction of the political immunities and privileges;
• free non-government sector. Creating competent civil structures for control over public media, struggle against corruption in the government and the public sector; over health reform, over the quality of education as well as keeping the order and over social security.

No authority elected by the people – neither politicians, nor magistrates, or ministers, may stand above the people. This requires guarantees for the separation of powers in conformity with the principles and practices it has created; protection of individual freedoms; finding the necessary balance regarding the rights of minorities and the disclaimer of political monopoly over these rights.

People differ in their religious and ethnical affiliation, tradition, value priorities, mentality and personal projects for the future. The right-wing policy requires respect for and inviolability of the natural right to be different; the right-wing government perceives people as subjects of full value and equal rights, and not as objects of its own activity.

Competition is the source of progress and when placed within the rules approved by everyone it does not deteriorate into enmity. Guarantees for its effective functioning are everybody’s equal chances to take part in competition and to achieve successful results depending on their own abilities and ambitions.

Monopoly is the destructive power, the main factor of disbalance in the political environment. The UDF sticks to the principle of removing any monopoly and provide an opportunity for all economic subjects to develop their initiative on equal terms and in compliance with the law.

The Government is a group of citisens authorized by the others to organse the society so that it achieves the objectives it has approved. Because of its nature, the government has to be open, transparent and under the control of the citisens, providing all the information and welcoming the civil ideas for improving the development perspectives. All government decisions shall be:

• a result of a debate and agreement of all parties to the specific problems (the principle of participation and interaction).
• made as close as possible to the communities where people live and with the participation of people (the principle of subsidiarity, decentralisation and maximum electivity of authorities on all levels).
• equally supporting everybody, such rules that are accepted by people, explicit, and just; which create an atmosphere of peace and guarantee that the citisens’ efforts, and not their closeness to power, shall result in prosperity – rules encouraging the initiative, development and fair competition.

The administration – this is a group of citisens narrowly specialised in performing the everyday routine activity of management directed at the achievement of the goals of the citisens living in a society, and guaranteeing clarity, predictability and order in the life of the socium. Because of its nature the administration should be efficient, timely, transparent, and easily accessible for the citisens. Therefore, certain mechanisms are introduced providing complete transparency of the governmental decision-making, full access of all social structures to the relevant information. The classified information refers only to those cases where publicity is a threat for the national security. It also introduces effective control over the administration activities, explicit and familiar rules over its activities, implicit sanctions valid for all when these rules are violated, simplified procedures enabling the citisens to sue the state when their rights and interests have been infringed upon by the activity of state authorities or institutions.

The politicians are the ones who represent the citisens and express their political will, who accept and summarise in a common picture their desires and turn this picture into a political vision and governmental decisions to be subsequently submitted for approval by the citisens in times of elections. Thus an agreement is reached regarding the society’s objectives. Therefore, the political parties should be in a continuous dialogue with the citisens – to accept the desires of individuals and groups and to shape them into decisions. This means complete clarity of the structure, financing and property of politicians and political parties, constant access of the citisens to information about and of the parties, participation of both citisens and groups of citisens in the work of the parties, searching for independent expert evaluations when making governmental decisions which also ensures preventing the clan structuring typical for most of the present parties.

The UDF is a people’s party – a party of the active people, of their families, communities and organisations, a party of the civil society. The UDF does not represent classes and does not protect class interests but rather strives for visions of a common future – rules, security for planning the success of all individuals in a just environment. This supposes:

• in all cases when a certain nomination for elections depends on the UDF (when also in opposition) inquiries should be made amongst the respective guild; if the nomination concerns a narrow specialist - among the citisens; if it concerns a politician on a national scale - amongst the local community; and if it concerns representatives on municipal and regional level.
• that the UDF should invite all active citisens to participate in the formulation of its policy and in taking decisions essential for the party.
• that the UDF should support all citisens’ initiatives oriented towards the restoration of the right-wing perspective and the unification of the right-wing forces.
• that the UDF should recreate itself as a community united for the cause of a free and prosperous society.
• that the UDF should implement its policy through an active dialogue with the non-governmental organisations (NGOs), professional unions and associations and any other structures of the civil society – and within this dialogue, the UDF should commit itself to protecting their creative ideas and expert opinions and to defend them politically.

The UDF is a right-wing party – a party of freedom, initiative, justice and solidarity of people with those in times of need. A party which is aware that the people, when left to pursue their happiness alone without any obstacles, will manage even better than the state and that in achieving their own happiness, they will push the whole country forward. A party to which the private property in all fields of economic life is a guarantee for success. That is why it supports any reasonable effort for the achievement of personal prosperity because by doing so people build the prosperity of the whole society as well.

The UDF is an uncompromising opponent to all authoritarian, totalitarian and tyrannical methods of exercising one’s power, an anti-communist and anti-totalitarian party. Anticommunism is historically the UDF’s underlying foundation. The ideological heritage of anticommunism is a reason for moral choice as a part of our value system. For us, it is a part of the contemporary European modernity and is based on the belief that the class may not set limits to and overwhelm the individual, and that the people are subjects and not objects of power. The UDF opposes any attempt to exercise, even partially, forms of Government that will always be attempted, be it by people and political formations, preferring the secret, non-transparent and arbitrary power.

• The topic of anticommunism stands as a position against arbitrariness, taking decisions in the dark and secret and uncontrolled governance.
• The UDF pays special attention to the culture of memory and the filling of the gaps in our recent history;
• The UDF defends the principle of irreconcilability and refusal of cooperation with the totalitarian regimes as an important aspect of the country’s foreign policy, regardless of the political situation.

The UDF is the party which shares the principle of a "small but a strong country", of a country which does not interfere with people’s lives and the production of value but imposes just rules valid for all, maintains security, keeps the order and protects the weak.

The UDF is a party of justice because it knows that where there is no justice, there is no worthy life. The UDF stands against the disturbing tendencies towards violating basic human rights.

The UDF is a party of security because the lack of security in the citisens’ lives deprives them from the freedom to develop as they think good. For the UDF, “security” means not only national security, struggle against crime and presence of just and efficient jurisdiction but also the establishment of social comfort for each Bulgarian citisen, which we associate with an effective and valid for all legislation, order and predictability of life, fair achievement, and justice.

The UDF is a party of solidarity because it does not assume that the people from disadvantaged groups are doomed to live the lives of second-rate citisens –people of no equal chances to achieve their happiness and prosperity. The UDF stands absolutely against the current abdication of the state from this sphere and the replacement of that particular state policy with one-time charitable activities.

Along with the solidarity, the UDF accepts as its values the humaneness and sympathy and uses them as the basis of its policy for the disabled groups. At the same time, the UDF does not allow the care of the minority groups and the socially excluded to deteriorate into actions placing them in a privileged position as compared to the other citisens and in a state of invulnerability to the laws and rules of living valid for all. The basic principle for work with the minority groups is “No discrimination but also no privileges!"

Morality is the foundation of the values shared by the UDF. Since politics is a common deed we consider as inappropriate and dangerous all the theories that there is no morality in politics. We share the belief that morality comes from God and that everyone is free to search their way to God depending on their views and religious affiliations. The UDF stands absolutely against the practice from recent years that the state may interfere legislatively and administratively in the religious and church doings as well as to the attempts of different political forces to build a political monopoly over a religiously differentiated part of the Bulgarian citisens. We find such interference dangerous and leading to authoritarism and we firmly insist on the distinction between the spiritual and worldly matters. According to the UDF, religious institutions should be independent of the state. At the same time UDF supports the idea that the state should create favourable conditions for the activities of different religious faiths.

The principle of susbsidiarity gives rise to a policy of:

• large-scale decentralisation of power towards municipalities and regions;
• establishing the right of municipalities to determine, collect and use taxes and fees;
• establishing a “second-level” of local authority electivity.
• establishing a “second-level” of local authority electivity.

The participation leads to a horizontal and open decision-making method with the institutionalised participation both of all the interested parties and the future target-groups of a certain policy. Inclusion in the management decisions of:

• civil associations and NGOs
• professional organisations
• associations of interested citisens (e.g. The Association of Parents, the Association of Consumers, etc.)

As it follows from the principles of a small but strong state, accounting, control and responsibility before the civil society, the unconditional truth that the UDF was born by the civil society opposing against the repressive machine of totalitarism, the UDF is a party as close as possible to civil society expressing its interests and representing it politically.

The UDF commits itself to support the idea of the state-society partnership by:

• positioning the principles of joint decision-making by the state and the civil organisations on a legislative level with propositions for amending the Public Administration Act;
• simplifying the existing clumsy and bureaucratic legislation by ensuring the possibility that informal groups of citisens would be able to work in favour of public interests on the model of the American civil organisations;
• supporting institutionally and legislatively the public-private partnership on a national and regional level.

The right-wing nature of the party presupposes the policy of low and simple taxes, small administration, small in their number, simple and lasting rules in business. A policy oriented towards:

• introducing an unified information system and a “one-stop-shop” at all levels of administration and in any administration;
• explicit rules for work of the administration, distinct and timely punishments for misconduct;
• easy and full access to information in all institutions;
• introducing administrative legal proceedings – the citisens may effectively sue the administration;
• transferring regulative powers from the state to civil and professional organisations – “self-regulation” by a professional and guild factor;
• withdrawing of the sate from its supervisory and redistributing functions in the business sector.

From the people’s nature of the party follows the creation of institutionalized forms of interaction and exchange with the communities, associations and organizations established by the people, as well as approaches, such as family taxation, tax stimulations for the citisens’ associations and etc.

From the concept of the nation’s civil nature and from solidarity follows the development of active policy for “integration” of the people from disadvantaged groups, establishment of effectively functioning state and social institutions for “integration”, and closing of the existing but not functioning ones.

Due to its solidarity nature, the UDF supports a sustainable and environment-friendly development – a development which does not deprive the future generations from their freedom of choice by leaving them a legacy of destructed natural environment.

From the belief in competition follows a policy of its promotion (reducing the cost of doing business, transparent procedures of all state tenders and biddings, effective information policy for the EU markets and funds, supporting the development of an effective system for continuous qualification, etc.).

From the belief in morality follows:

• the development of an effective policy of struggle against corruption – of establishing systems for preventing conflicts of interests, accounting, transparency, access and control over the administrations on all levels, and also developing and imposing ethical codes for the conduct of the main political figures – deputies, politicians, officials;
• the refusal of populism in all political actions and intolerance to promoting untruths and concealment in politics, regardless of the goals justifying such gestures;
• the care of the culture of memory, creating a modern and untwisted ideological vision of our country’s history, including the years of transition, establishing an institute of memory oriented to filling the gaps in our recent history – the years of communist regime with its secrets and crimes;
• the systematic care for supporting the Bulgarian spirituality by a new reading of our cultural history and determining the real values in it, which could be a guarantee for our national identity after the EU accession – by creating a national fund for supporting the contemporary culture, managed by a social council independent of the state, which will provide assistance to freely competing cultural projects, and by purposeful care for popularising Bulgarian culture abroad.

All these values and the UDF policies related to them are centered around a common goal – fulfilling the national ideal bequeathed by our ancestors for a free and prosperous Bulgaria, complying with and achieving European rules and standards of living, realising and protecting national interest under the new conditions of the 21st century, preserving the Bulgarian national and cultural identity within the framework of united Europe and the developing global world. Of all political parties in Bulgaria, The UDF has the greatest potential to perceive and implement the accumulated experience of other countries upon their EU accession – Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Poland are examples of how to cooperate but also to use the process of integration and how to defend national interest in conflict situations. The well-deserved membership of Bulgaria in the European Union imposes the following priorities:

• defending the Bulgarian national interest in combination with EU interests. The UDF sees Bulgaria as an equal partner of the other European countries and stands up for the right of opinion in all cases in which this is dictated by the country interests.
• special, legislatively established care for keeping the Bulgarian spirit, language, traditions and cultural identity.
• protection of interests of the Bulgarian communities and Bulgarian citisens all over the world, care for the preservation their bond with the Motherland, encouraging those who chose to come back to Bulgaria.
• transparency and civil control over European funds spending. The UDF shall use all political resources available in order to exercise monitoring over this process and to publicise its results. It shall also to block all the attempts, prepared even from now, for favouring the ruling circles through their related companies and hollow NGOs.
• carrying out a mass information campaign regarding the opportunities for participating with projects in the fields financed by the EU in the process of accession.