Bulgarian Press Review August 29, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, October 29 (BTA)

THE HOME SCENE

The topic of the missing reports drawn up by the State Agency for National Security (SANS) continues to make headline news. On Wednesday Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said that nine more documents, all drawn up by SANS and addressed to former Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, are missing. "Troud" notes that thus, a total of 10 SANS documents are now missing. Among the new nine is a report on possible measures by the US Treasury Department regarding the banking system, and reports on smuggling channels, on a tender for special products, on the likelihood of Russia using Bulgaria's energy map as a political weapon.

The newspapers quote Stanishev's recommendation to carry out an investigation into what he called "Prime Minister's Borissov's circle of friends, Kotaratsite [Tomcats]" and into how public procurement contracts connected to Sofia's governance, were won. Before becoming prime minister Borissov was Sofia Mayor. "Troud" writes that Borissov's response to this was immediate: he knew about seven people with cat nicknames. Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov urged Stanishev to provide more information about this circle of friends, along with documents proving what the members of the circle did. He also asked Stanishev why he did not alert the competent authorities.

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"24 Chassa" runs excerpts of an interview Wednesday for bTV of Ivan Drashkov, former deputy head of SANS. He said that SANS agents racketeered businessmen for millions of leva. Drashkov said also that SANS was managed on "auto pilot". He admits that he signed the notorious report about corrupt members of the previous cabinet (one of the currently missing documents) which was addressed to the then prime minister Stanishev, the President, the then chairman of the National Assembly and the Prosecutor General. Drashkov said that the purpose of the document was to set out circumstances, events and reasons that led to what he described as the ridiculous style and method of work which around the end of May 2008 became a practice in SANS. The former SANS official said that certain structures in SANS started to operate like street gangs: without due permits and documents, without reports but just on the strength of phone calls.

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"Novinar" interviews ex-chief of the former National Security Service Atanas Atanassov who says that SANS was the political police of the previous incumbents. He directs the attention to the State Commission for Information Security (SCIC) which is a special body bearing responsibility for the system of classified information. Atanassov asks how come that no one questions SCIC's work in the past eight years so that now we are faced with a situation where documents classified as top secret are in the open. Atanassov says also that there is a unit of people in SANS involved in meddling in the political processes in the country, in protecting certain political parties and obstructing others. An entity in question is the Order, Lawfulness and Justice (OLJ) party, Atanassov says, adding that OLJ and its performance at the last general elections are to some extent associated with protection of the SANS leadership.

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The Thursday newspapers report on the declaration the National Assembly passed reprimanding former Prime Minister and incumbent MP Sergei Stanishev (Coalition for Bulgaria) and Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) leader Ahmed Dogan for their consistent absence from the sittings of Parliament. The Coalition for Bulgaria and MRF MPs quit the plenary chamber in protest of the declaration. The document was passed with 134 votes in favour.


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The analysis in "24 Chassa" is devoted to the reform in the judiciary. The author argues that it is only possible if magistrates are elected directly. Now they are appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council. The author suggests that district prosecutor and judges are elected by the people every four years. Thus, when magistrates depend directly on voters, they will be forced to work for society. Who would vote for a prosecutor who has built a holiday housing estate for themselves? Or for a judge, who regularly wines and dines in the company of the local bandit, asks the author of the analysis.

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A comment in "Sega" says that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) will not govern Bulgaria but only parts of it. MRF, which used to be in power as part of various coalitions since the 1990s, is unlikely to be present at the central power any time soon, and will not govern alone for sure. However, the party is equally unlikely to be displaced from the local powers, which will become ever more independent from the central government bodies. MRF has entrenched itself in the local powers and does its best to govern alone there, says the comment.

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"Troud" interviews former social policy minister Ivan Neikov who says that one of the main sources of budget revenue is the Value Added Tax which is first taken from people, and then used to pay pensions. According to Neikov, this is the biggest deformity of the social security system. The burden for ensuring funds in the pension system is borne by the entire society, instead by only employers and employees, he says.

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"24 Chassa" says in a front-page headline that the Health Ministry explains the thousands of people taken down with flu as "wide circulation of the illness" and not an "epidemic". For a week, 4,553 people were taken down with flu, nearly 400 more than in the preceding seven days, "24 Chassa" writes. The proven cases of swine flu are 204. However, according to the daily, their number is at least three times higher.

The newspapers report on the second swine flu-caused death, again in Samokov, Western Bulgaria. A peak of flu incidence is expected in six regions shortly, "24 Chassa" writes.

Other dailies say that Bulgaria is on the eve of a swine flu epidemic.

Citing Kamen Plochev, head of the Military Hospital for Infectious Diseases, "Monitor" says that the peak of swine flu will be around Christmas when many Bulgarians who work abroad will come home for the holidays.

ECONOMY

The approval by the cabinet of the 2010 draft budget is one of the most commented topics in the Thursday press. "Pari" singles out the fact that next year's budget will not have the 10 per cent buffer of the current one so that all ministries will get their outlays already at the start of the year.

All of the dailies report that when presenting the 2010 draft budget on Wednesday, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov compared it to a carton containing a small-size pizza whereas the 2009 budget was an empty large pizza carton. The fiscal framework approved earlier remains unchanged: 2 per cent drop in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010, 2.2 per cent inflation, foreign investments forecast at 5.2 per cent of the GDP, and a U.S. dollar/Bulgarian leva exchange rate of 1.45 leva/USD 1.


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Front-page stories in all of the Thursday dailies report that the German company RWE is withdrawing from the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project. The news was released by the Bulgarian Energy Holding on Wednesday. The project for a second nuclear power plant in Bulgaria thus remains without an investor other than the Bulgarian State.

The newspapers quote Deputy Economy Minister Maya Hristova as saying that RWE's withdrawal should by no means be considered a project failure. She said that the cabinet thinks how to attract new investors.

"Standart News" quotes Prime Minister Boyko Borissov as saying that his cabinet did its best to save the project. However, the previous government of the three-party coalition did not do its work well and failed to make the necessary financial schedules.

SOCIETY

"24 Chassa" informs of the international meeting of news agencies of Southeastern Europe and the Black Sea Region organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) in Sofia and Veliko Turnovo, Northern Bulgaria, from October 30 to November 2. The forum, mottoed "Strong in Information", will be opened by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

The event will be attended by the leaders of 23 news agencies. They provide round-the-clock information to more than 360 Million people in Southeastern Europe and the Black Sea Region.

Links to some Bulgarian info websites in English:

• http://www.bta.bg/site/en/indexe.shtml
• http://www.novinite.com/index.php
• http://www.focus-fen.net/

Most discussed topics of the day – October 29, 2009

• Bulgaria's President, Georgi Parvanov, has declared during his Australia visit that a recent statement of Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, was "unacceptable". During a news conference in Sydney, Parvanov referred to the words of Gruevski who recently visited Australia as well.
Gruevski’s words were that the Macedonians in Australia had a unique opportunity that they did not have in the Republic of Macedonia: to live with their compatriots from Aegean and Pirin Macedonia. (The Pirin region of the geographic area “Macedonia” is in Southwest Bulgaria, and the Aegean part is in Greece.) Gruevksi has also called upon the Macedonians in Australia not to split because “there are no Vardar Macedonians (i.e. the region of today’s Republic of Macedonia), no Aegean Macedonians, no Pirin Macedonians, there are only Macedonians”.
“I am bewildered by the position that has been expressed by the Prime Minister of neighboring Macedonia. I see it as unacceptable, as an expression of territorial claims. It is all the more unacceptable as Macedonia aspires to become a member of the EU,” the Bulgarian President declared in Australia Thursday.

• Bulgaria’s chief state health expert, Tencho Tenev, has stated that at least 2 million Bulgarians will get the A (H1N1) virus over the coming months, as the country prepares to announce a swine flu epidemic. Tenev said that according to estimates 30% of Bulgaria’s population will become sick from the virus during the winter months.