Against this backdrop, an exhaustive review of the various budget expenditure items should be undertaken in order to identify areas where there is room for efficiency improvements, as the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) has done in recent years. 35  Turning to taxation, improving revenue-raising capacity and tax system efficiency should also be a priority, for which comparisons with other European countries can act as a guide.9 Once again, the review under way by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility of the numerous tax benefits in place should be useful for streamlining their use and enhancing their efficiency. It also seems reasonable to continue exploring, in a coordinated fashion internationally, certain possible tax reforms that have been the topic of recent discussions. Included here is the review of the taxation levied on certain multinationals, with a view to preventing the use of aggressive tax planning strategies to move tax bases to lower-taxation jurisdictions. In any event, irrespective of the structure in terms of receipts and expenditure, the anchoring of the gradual process of budgetary consolidation will be determined in the medium term by the prescriptions of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). In this respect, it is estimated that, under certain plausible assumptions,10 public debt will tend to decrease gradually as a percentage of GDP in all of the Banco de España’s scenarios outlined above. This is assuming that, once the effects of the crisis have faded, the structural deficit continues to fall in terms similar to those required under the SGP, i.e.
Dimitar Radev: Bank supervision and resolution within the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism Publication by Mr Dimitar Radev, Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, in the Quarterly Bulletin of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria, issue 62, October 2020. * * * As of 1 October 2020, Bulgaria joined the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) by establishing close cooperation between the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and the European Central Bank (ECB). The accession to the SSM comes as a result of Decision (ЕU) 2020/1015, made by the ECB on 24 June 2020. With its accession to the SSM, Bulgaria also joined the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM). The SSM and the SRM are the two currently operating blocks of the so-called Banking Union in the euro area. Accession to the Banking Union was a precondition for the inclusion of the Bulgarian Lev into the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II). 1. Participation in the Single Supervisory Mechanism The SSM is the name of the banking supervision system in the euro area. It comprises the ECB and the national supervisory authorities of participating Member States. Applicable to Member States outside the euro area is the so-called regime of close cooperation between the relevant national supervisory authority and the ECB – the mechanism established for Bulgaria. The main objectives of the SSM are to ensure the safety and soundness of the European banking system, to enhance financial integration and implementation of consistent supervision.