Bulgarian Press Review, October 21, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, October21 (BTA)

THE HOME SCENE

Following up on the kidnapping of Roumen Gouninski Jr., a second-year student at the National Sports Academy, near his home in Sofia's Studentski Grad Borough Monday evening, Wednesday's "Troud" speculates that the abductors may have sought to harm the political career of Roumen Gouninski Sr., who is a municipal councillor in Pravets, elected on the list of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), and is considered as a possible BSP candidate in the forthcoming mayoral byelections in the town. "Motives related to local elections may well have been behind the kidnapping," Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov assumed on Tuesday. Still, he dismissed as "unserious" the talk that a single specific group controls kidnappings in Bulgaria. Ransom for Gouninski has not yet been demanded, Sofia City Prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov told the daily. In his opinion, this is a "textbook case of kidnapping."

"24 Chassa" quotes Prime Minister Boyko Borissov as saying on Tuesday that he is contemplating the drafting of an express law on kidnappings. He declined to elaborate before consulting his ministers. In his words, the law may as short as a single page but will provide for exceedingly severe punishments.

In an analysis entitled "Roumen's Kidnappers Test Interior Ministry, PM," "24 Chassa" notes that the gang that attacked Gouninski in front of dozens of witnesses defied not only the Ministry but the entire State as well. It defied Prime Minister Borissov, too, who is a friend to Valentin Zlatev who, in turn, is more than a partner to the father of the kidnapped student. "This time the gang went too far. The most natural reason for this is their conviction that the State is helpless to oppose them. A success or a failure against the gang will make it clear whether the Ministry will really do something about these groups or will just go through the motions, as was the case over the last ten years. Hopefully, the highlight of this operation will not be the feverish drafting of a law against kidnapping. The foremost and most urgent priority is to allocate several million euro for equipment that will place law-enforcers and kidnappers on a level playing field."

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"Monitor" reports that, after a meeting with representatives of the I Want a Baby Foundation and the Conception Association, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said that the Government will allocate 8.2 million leva for IVF of all 1,600 couples who cannot have children because of sterility. It turns out that the previous Government lied that it had set aside 20 million leva for IVF, as the money was allocated on paper only.

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New estimates showed that in 2010 health insurance contributions to the health care system will amount to 1,800 million leva, down from 2,600 million leva expected at the beginning of the year, Health Minister Bozhidar Nanev commented to "Troud." "This is precisely the reason why we want to increase the compliance rate of the contributions, to give them the same status as taxes and to compel 1.2 million Bulgarians without health insurance to pay the contributions they owe," he added.

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Interviewed for "24 Chassa", GERB mayoral candidate for Sofia Yordanka Fandakova says she is running because "the programme by which we started at the beginning of the term of office must be contibued. This requries a person familiar with work in City Hall, who has been part of the team and who is positively inclined to motivate his or her co-workers." She stakes on the full management process: from planning through organizing to controlling. "I know the work of the Sofia Municipality administration well, and I am categorical that I will continue to stake on very rigorous control," Fandakova asserts.

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In "Troud", political scientist Evgenii Dainov argues that the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) displays all symptoms of a tribe out of step with time which is dying out. "The active ones have long gone, and the handful that has remained communicate in a language that nobody except them understand. And they are fighting - as it became clear at the UDF conference - to preserve their identity. The business of parties is completely different: to propose a project for the common good, i.e. for the good of everybody, so that people would vote them into power and see the project translated into reality. When the parties stop thinking about the common good, they shed electorate and become extinct."

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"The four candidates for leader of the National Movement for Surge and Stability started their meetings with members and supporters of the party and will be going round the country in the course of one month to seek people who still want to have anything to do with the party. This form of competition among the four was devised so as to cover up the disgrace that the delegates to the party's congress were too few to fill up a patisserie. The nominations are a sort of bidding from the party top. That is why their race is regally positive and boring. Everybody want one and the same thing: to revive the past in the future. This, however, cannot possibly happen," "Sega" comments

ECOMOMY

Commenting on Finance Minister Simeon Djankov's idea to entrust the Government's savings to private management, Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Deputy Governor Dimiter Kostov says, quoted in "Troud", that if the Government's fiscal reserve is withdrawn from the BNB, it will clog the banking system. "In principle, there is no problem taking the entire reserve of 7,000-8,000 million leva out of the central bank within three days. This, however, will send the commercial banks' liquidity soarding and in practice they have nothing to do with the money. Their option is to do like the central bank and invest it in risk-free securities." "The idea to deposit the fiscal reserve with Bulgarian banks is a bad idea, this may influence the country's stability," Democrats for Strong Bulgaria leader Ivan Kostov commented on Djankov's idea Tuesday.

"Standart News" has rounded up the opinion of leading financial experts. "The reserve must not be trifled with," financial consultant Andrei Prumov recalled. He argues that this money cannot be placed at commercial banks just like that, but probably this was not Djankov's idea. "What he most probably meant was that the reserve is not managed sufficiently effectively, and this is true." According to Peter Ganev of the Institute for Market Economics, the thing that definitely must be avoided with the reserve is to spend it on some Government expense items. The key sectors in which the funds can be invested are the pension system and health care. The fiscal reserve can act as a buffer when these sectors are successfully reformed. Krassimir Katev, who was deputy finance minister in the Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha cabinet, sees the idea to deposit part of the fiscal reserve with commercial banks as a means to increase the lev liquidity in the banking system rather than as a means to boost the yield of the reserve. "We hope that this will lead to lower lending interest rates and will help increase the loan-financing of the real economy," Katev says.

"Klassa" too, quotes opinions on Djankov's proposal. Former finance minister Stoyan Alexander, who is now Executive Director of D Bank, says that when it invests in commercial banks, the State enjoys a special status regarding minimum reserve requirements and regarding deposit guarantee. "Let's hope the criterion is not political or nepotist, because this will create an absolutely unfair competition among banks." Dimiter Chobanov, who teaches finance at the University of National and World Economy, warns of the risk of hard currency flowing out of the country.

"24 Chassa" quotes Prime Minister Boyko Borissov as promising on Tuesday that, if part of the fiscal reserve is deposited with commercial banks, they will be selected openly, by a competitive procedure with clear rules. He said that, for the time being, this is just an idea and, if it comes to its implementation, this will require the approval of the international financial institutions.

"No More Cheating with Loans, Slush Funds," GERB MP Menda Stoyanova, who chairs the National Assembly Budgetary Committee, says in a "Troud" interview. She explaines that when loans are decalred in the tax return and are entered into the information system, it will be clear how much a person earns and spends and whether the legitimate earnings are enough to cover his or her spending. This will put an end to cheating. Stoyanova notes that the 2009 budget planned 32,000 million leva revenues whereas, in reality, they are not expected to exceed 25,000-26,000 million. This against the backrgound of a forecast ongoing economic decline of some 2 per cent and intensified measures to stop smuggling and get the grey sector under control.

"Standart News" writes that bosses of state-owned companies have been fired by Transport Minister Aleksandar Tsvetkov afrer audits conducted at the companies managed by them found financial abuses. The suspicions of corrupt transactions have been referred to the prosecuting magistracy, the Transport Ministry said in a press release.

BULGARIA - EU

"Sega" quotes European Commission (EC) Spokesman Mark Gray as saying on Tuesday in connection with the arranged magisterial appointments affair, which has been rocking the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for two months now, that the European Commission insists that the SJC investigate the appointments made so far and take adequate measures. The subject was also discussed by Bulgarian Justice Minister Margarita Popova, who is visiting Brussels, with officials of the EC Secretariat-General. Popova said that the EC sees what is happening as "salutary to the system", but the SJC must make a full reassessment of the way it is handling personnel policy.

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 21, 2009

· The fiscal reserve will not be touched and will not be transferred, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov told a news conference after a weekly government meeting Wednesday. His remark comes a couple of days after Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov told the press that part of the nearly 8,000 million leva fiscal reserve, which has been at the central bank since 1997-1998 where it earns 0.5 per cent interest, may be deposited with commercial banks and bear an interest of some 6 per cent.
· The Blue Coalition leaders commented Wednesday at the National Assembly that Russian media reports claiming that Bulgaria has been excluded from the South Stream gas pipeline project seek to put pressure on Bulgaria. The comments were prompted by Russia's "Kommersant" newspaper. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov declined any comment on the Kommersant allegations. He told the reporters they should spend less time reading media reports.

· At the beginning of October, 52 percent of the Bulgarians say that if parliamentary elections were today, they would vote for Boyko Borisov’s party – Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB). Perhaps this number includes famous conformist attitudes and the so-called prestigious vote. This became clear from the survey result of the National Centre for Public Opinion Research (NCPOR).