Bulgarian Press Review, October 12, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, October 12 (BTA)

Sofia, October 12 (BTA) - Under the front-page headline "Brain-Racking Reckonings for 2010 Budget," "Dnevnik" covers an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Thursday at which the ministers "were tasked with cutting and reforming." "The 2010 budget is drafted on the basis of a 10,000 million leva drop in GDP," "Douma" notes. "Standart News" frontpages the news that the excise duty on alcoholic drinks and fuels will not be increased. "Drinkers Spared, but We Will All Have to Live on BGN 10,000 Mln Less," "24 Chassa" writes.

"Explain to people that there is no way for wages to rise fast," World Bank Vice President Kristalina Georgieva told "24 Chassa." "Rising the retirement age should not be abrupt, but is inevitable, otherwise things will get even worse," she notes.

"Sega" writes that according to a three-year budget projection produced by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy for the 2010-2012 period, the number of Bulgarians entitled to welfare benefits will be increasing steadily, people with disabilities will exceed half a million, and the unemployment rate will reach 11.4 per cent as early as in 2010. The Ministry expects an average 72,400 individuals and families to receive monthly allowances in 2011 and 2012, which will cost 82.5 million leva. A year earlier, in 2010, 67.6 million leva will be needed for such payments to 62,600 persons. Until the end of 2009, a total of 60,000 persons will need such allowances. Initially, the Exchequer allocated 85.3 million leva for this purpose, but after the budget was revised the funds dwindled to 62.4 million leva for 42,982 persons. "In practice, the money for this year has already been spent," writes "Sega."

"The Prime Minister and I will find an extra 600 million for medical treatment," Finance Minister Simeon Djankov says in a "Standart News" interview. "There will be no more under-the-counter payments in hospitals," he says. Financial experts will claculate the cost of the clinical pathways, and doctors will monitor compliance, he explains. He argues that contributions to a private health insurance fund must be compulsory.

"Monitor" reports on its front page that Prime Minister Boyko Borissov proposed a debate between the incumbent and the former cabinet at the National Assembly next Friday.

"I have not come to the Ministry to stay for just four months," Defence Minister Nickolay Mladenov said, asked by "Dnevnik" whether he is willing to part with his portfolio next month and to succeed Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva, if she becomes a EU Commissioner.

In an interview for "Monitor," Deputy Education Minister Sergei Ignatov calls on higher educational establishments to introduce electronic instruction fast.

"As from today, more than 2,000 customs officers will be filling out professional aptitude tests, the results of which will determine who will keep their jobs," "Troud" writes on its front page. This first filtering will be followed by a second one. "A total of 553 customs officers, including 126 senior personnel, were kicked out of the system less than a month ago. Between September 1 and 10 alone, excise duty revenues trebled, after General Vanyo Tanov was appointed customs chief, the National Customs Agency said.

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"We have no time to delay the Decision: the party is indeed down and out, and we are responsible," Tatyana Doncheva of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) says in a "Troud" interview. "Dnevnik" runs an analysis by Alexander Marinov headlined "BSP: Reload or Reinstall?" According to the lead story of "Ataka", lawyers Tatyana Doncheva and Mihail Mikov are planning to challenge the BSP congress in court if it fails to include an item on election of a chairman on the agenda, with Doncheva running for the position.

"The refusal to nominate a Blue mayoral candidate is the death of the old Right," "Troud" comments. "Dnevnik" has headlined its coverage "Blue Call to Arms", crossing out the 'r' in 'Arms' and replacing it by an 'l'.

"To IMRO Krassimir Karakachanov is already history," Plovdiv Mayor Slavcho Atanassov, who is running for leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), told "Troud."

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"In my opinion, [then prime minister] Sergei Stanishev gave the go-ahead for 'Gallery' because of publications on a website that contained invectives against him personally and indirectly against the President and the President's entourage," former Prime Minister Ivan Kostov told "24 Chassa." He chaired a parliamentary commission of inquiry into a now notorious operation codenamed "Gallery," in which the State Agency for National Security surveilled journalists and their politician contacts. "Open whichever newspaper you want worldwide, and you'll see that no prime minister and president ever goes unattacked. You will see how numerous opponents Merkel, Berlusconi, Obama and others have. Still, nobody sets in motion against their enemies the weapons intended to protect the country's national security," Kostov says.

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"Kyril Saxe-Coburg is lying when he tells the '24 Chassa' newspaper that he has not proposed a deal for the foreign debt," former finance minister Mouravei Radev writes in the same daily. "Five or six Finance Ministry officials attended our meeting, including Plamen Oresharski, who was then deputy minister," he notes. As he puts it, evidence can be found in the Ministry's archives, which keep the analysis of Saxe-Coburg's written proposal for a deal with the debt showing that Bulgaria stands to lose from this deal.

"I was signing the publuc procurement [contracts] at the Ministry of Transport," former chief secretary Roumen Hristov told "24 Chassa." "The list for 2008 shows that these contracts ranged from cleaning the Ministry buildings to the government Airbuses. I affixed between 20 and 30 signatures daily," he notes, adding that he knows "where the dotted line is." Hristov has been at the Ministry since 1979, he has worked with 18 ministers.

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Some 55 per cent of the money for the construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant will go to European companies: Bulgarian, French, and German, "Troud" calculated. "It seems paradoxical that the Russians will keep just 45 per cent or so, but Moscow is not complaining about that," the paper writes.

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"I will be fighting for the parental rights: I want them awarded to me by court, strictly under the law," Spaska Mitrova's husband Vojislav Savic says, referring to their 2-year-old daughter Suzana. Spaska's mother says, however, that Savic was doing drugs in front of his pregnant wife.

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In a dispatch from the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg, "Troud" correspondent Lilia Hristovska writes that the Court decided that a Bulgarian case will be examined by 13 judges according to a summary procedure which has been in force for a year and a half now and has been used for just three cases so far. The case in question, known as "The Chechen" in Luxembourg, won Bulgaria prestige for the significance of the issue raised by Bulgarian Judge Natalia Angelova of the Sofia City Administrative Court and for the professionally formulated question and the answers "suggested" by Angelova. "The Chechen" is about a person of Chechen origin who was apprehended in the act of crossing illegally into Bulgaria in 2006. "The case hit illegal emigration," the paper writes.

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"Not a single fan welcomed Bulgaria's internationals back home after the loss against Cyprus," writes "Zemya" on its front page. "If you have any suggestions, let's hear them. What is to be done: naturalize the drunkards who come to play in Bulgaria? This can't be serious," a defensive national team captain and Manchester United star Dimitar Berbatov told reporters. "New boys have joined the team, that was their first match, making mistakes is normal. That's what it is: we don't have other players," he noted.

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 12, 2009

· Bulgaria's Government plans to revise and raise the 2010 budget on June 15 if the anti crisis measures take effect in the spring as expected. “I plan that we make a budget actualization on June 15 and then continue moving upwards. By that time there must be enough signals for exiting the crisis – I expect to see them in the beginning of spring. They will allow us to increase the expenditures. Until then we will be working with balanced budget”, the finance minister Simeon Djankov annaunced.

· Four candidates are aspiring to replace Bulgaria's former Tsar and Prime Minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg at the leadership post of the NMSP party. Saxe-Coburg resigned in the aftermath of the crushing for the National Movement for Stability and Prosperity (NMSP) party results of the July general elections in Bulgaria when, after two government terms, the party failed to win a single parliamentary seat.

· The Sofia City Court began Monday the trial against the notorious SAPARD money laundering case against the so-called “Nikolov-Stoykov” group. The magistrates rejected the request of the defense council to halt the trail until mistakes in the official charges are cleared, and over claims some of the defendants had not received their subpoenas on time. Mario Nikolov, Luydmil Stoykov and five other defendants are charged with siphoning EUR 7,5 M from the EU SAPARD funds.