The July heat did not reduce the desire to acquire knowledge and skills during the second day of the third course of the National Program for Class 2021. The day on July 26 started as usually at 9.00 with a training session on energy. Martin Vladimirov, Director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Center for the Study of Democracy, briefed the trainees on possible scenarios for restoring and achieving Bulgaria’s carbon neutrality by 2050. Immediately afterwards, Lachezar Bogdanov, chief economist at the Institute for Market Economics, spoke about the prospects for development of the Bulgarian economy. Immediately after the lecture, divided into groups of ten, the trainees had to deal with a training case. The aim was to analyze the medium and long-term effect on the Bulgarian economy of the measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic. Each of the four groups finally presented two measures with alleged hidden effects from them and received feedback on their work from Lachezar Bogdanov.

In the afternoon, time was devoted to the national budget as a tool for prioritizing public policies. The lecturers in this session were Prof. Rumen Gechev – Member of Parliament from BSP and former Minister of Economic Development, Dr. Georgi Ganev – Member of Parliament from “Democratic Bulgaria” and university lecturer, Daniela Saveklieva – Member of Parliament from GERB in the 42nd, 43rd and 44th National Assembly. In the training task after the lecture, the trainees worked on the adoption of a state budget for a hypothetical year in the future.