Bulgarian Press Review, October 22, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, October22 (BTA)

INTERIOR MINISTRY, JUDICIARY

Under the headline "Justice Facing Bankruptcy", "Troud" quotes Justice Minister Margarita Popova reporting on the findings of an internal audit that the her ministry may go bankrupt after it inherited debts to the worth of nearly 350 million leva [roughly 125 million euro]. Payments under 37 construction contracts total 359,352,780 leva, of which only 16,687,818 leva have been paid out. "I will wait out the 100-day grace period for the government and then will go face-to-face with my successor to explain what the situation is," former justice minister Meglena Tacheva said for "Troud". In her words, a minister's job is to look for funds and not to take count of money. The Black Sea town of Varna has not had its own court building in 70 years and the regional court and the prosecution in Sofia have been placed in cramped conditions for 40 years. Tacheva added that a minister job is to take care of that. Popova said that only the debts of this small ministry are enough to bankrupt the state. Some 333,664,062 million leva have not been secured for the 2009-2011 period. The 2009 budget is set at about 170 million leva and the contracts for the construction of the court houses in Sofia and Varna alone are worth 302 million leva, said Popova. The construction of the court building in Sofia costs nearly 185 million leva. The audit has found that instead of the usual 10 per cent, advance payments reached 30 per cent.

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"Monitor", "Telegraf" and "Express" frontpage that Pravets-based businessman Roumen Gouninski have been contacted by the kidnappers of his son. They signalled that the boy is ok, but did not set a ransom yet, writes "Monitor", citing an undisclosed source. "Standart News" cites close family relations that a one million euro ransom had been asked on the condition that the information is not confirmed. In the same paper, Sofia City Prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov says that kidnapping gangs have made over 10 million euro.

"Troud" reports that there are no suspects for the kidnapping. However, twenty people are being checked after their comfortable lifestyle raised suspicions of involvement in criminal activities. Two members of the elite anti-terrorist squad in Vrana, near Sofia, are among them.

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The Commission for Personal Data Protection will crack down on the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and its leader Sergei Stanishev. Ekaterina Boncheva of the committee for disclosing affiliation with the communist-era intelligence filed a complaint against the BSP for invading her personal space. On June 6, Boncheva's answering machine recorded a message, which made her a victim of the notorious telephone canvassing on behalf of BSP leader Sergei Stanishev. In a pre-recorded message he called on Boncheva to vote left. In her complaint Boncheva argues that the campaign used her telephone number, which is personal data and constitutes a violation.

HOME SCENE

"Pari" writes that Bulgaria's fiscal reserve will stay with the Bulgarian National Bank. "Zemya" headlines "Borissov Snubs Djankov on Fiscal Reserve".

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The Bulgarian government is not going to extend state guarantees towards a loan for the construction of the Belene N-plant in 2010, writes "Sega", citing a list of state-guaranteed loans adopted by the government, which does not include the Belene project



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Under the 2010 draft budget, over 7,000 million leva will be provided for pensions, "Standart News" reports. Although social payments make up the biggest public expenditure, an increase of pensions has not been budgeted in 2010.

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In an interview for "Dnevnik", Deputy Labour Minister Krassimir Popov says that the government is trying to hold unemployment rate this year at 10 per cent.

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"Klassa" writes that in 2010 the Road Infrastructure Agency will receive some 100 million leva for capital expenditures, which is five time less than the amount it requested. The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works will receive 50 million leva for capital expenditures. Another 148 million leva have been budgeted in for the ministry and the agency, according to Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev.

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In an interview for "Troud", Deputy Environment Minister Evdokia Maneva says that the business suffers damages every year, worth 600 million euro, due to the lack of a scheme for the trade off of greenhouse gas emissions. Maneva said, the her ministry drafted a plan, which should be considered by European Commission within a week and subsequently adopted. By mid-2009
Bulgaria should have built 56 waste water treatment plants and such plants should have been in place by the end of 2010 in all settlements with over 10,000 population. In her words, Bulgaria is facing infringement procedures under two EU directives as 23 of the waste water treatment plants are not ready and out of 127 population centres, 70 have no waste processing facilities. According to her, a scheme has benefited close circles. Maneva says that transiting projects yield best to theft, because after pipes get buried, it is hard to run any checks.

ECONOMY

"24 Chassa" cites a report by the European Commission that some 75 per cent of online purchases placed by Bulgarians fail. Two out of three Bulgarians and Romanians who shop online, are turned down, as online shops do not deliver to these two countries or their bank cards are not accepted. After having checked over 4,000 electronic shops across the EU, the Commission has found that the majority of goods are cheaper abroad. Bulgarians, Romanians, Latvians, Belgians and the Maltese find it most difficult to shop online cross-border. Across the EU, 61 per cent of online purchases are turned down.

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Bozhidar Danev, President of the Bulgarian Industrial Association calls on the banks to stop putting pressure on the business. Danev says the pressure is rising because of the vicious practice of nearly all banks in Bulgaria to update interest rates. Danev says that both individual and corporate clients are suffering. According to Danev, the option which allows banks to change one-sidedly conditions on contracts should be scrapped.

FOREIGN POLICY
"Troud" dedicates a two-page spread to the audits which are underway in the Foreign Ministry. The former head of the agency which manages domestic diplomatic properties [DDPA] Assen Makedonov self-assigned him on 48 business trips abroad during his three and a half year tenure. He claimed expenses to the amount of 121,000 leva, indicated an audit on the DDPA activities between January 1 2006 and August 16 2009, commissioned by Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva.A file case has been opened by the prosecution authorities. Former foreign minister Ivailo Kalfin, who was agency's principal, described the check as "outrageous" and media reports as "lies".

Makedonov was declined a meeting with Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva as well as access to the report on the audit findings. In n telephone interview from Strasbourg, Kalfin, who sits in the European Parliament, said that this was an outrageous approach, most likely concealing personal interests.

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Interviewed by "24 Chassa", Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov said that measures should be taken to rein in hate slurs against neighbouring countries in Macedonia. The interview, prompted by Macedonia's and Kosovo agreement on the final demarcation of the border between the two countries, is headlined "Skopje to Be Set EU Date After Resolving Neighbourly Disputes". Raikov said that the rights of those Macedonian citizens, who have a different perception of their origin from the official doctrine should be ensured, having in mind Macedonian Bulgarians. "What united us in the past, should not stand between us today," he notes.

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Under the headline "Bulgaria Enters Anti-Missile Umbrella", "Troud" runs an interview with US Assistant Defense Secretary Alexander Vershbow.

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Bulgarians have the third shortest life expectancy of EU citizens, after Lithuanians and Romanians, found a survey on the quality of life in the 27 EU member states. With a life expectancy of 84, French women live on average eight years longer than Bulgarian women. Bulgarians smoke too much, but are moderate drinkers compared with other nations.

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In a congratulatory address on the 44th birthday of CSKA's fan club president Dimiter "Doucheto" Angelov, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov says that CSKA is the best Bulgarian football club at the moment, front-pages "24 Chassa". The prime minister is a die-hard Levski fan. In order to be able to watch a game, Borissov once took to a football match former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who is known to hate football.

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 22, 2009

· Special police units busted a pregnant women trafficking channel and detained the organizers of the crime. A 38-year-old man and his wife from Nova Zagora are now being questioned, after being officially accused of trafficking pregnant women for the sale of their babies. The investigation identified three specific cases in which women sold their newborn babies. The organizers of the trade of pregnant women, from Yambol, Haskovo, Plovdiv, Kazanlak and Dimitrovgrad were paid between EUR 5000 and 10 000 in Greece for the babies.

· To avoid losing several months Bulgaria has requested to launch Lot 2 of Trakia motorway in advance and in abidance by absolutely all procedures required by legislation, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said at a news conference after his meeting with European Commissioner for Regional Policy Pawel Samecki.

· The member of Bulgaria’s Supreme Judicial Council, (VSS), Ivan Dimov, retracted Thursday his week-old decision to resign from his post. He is one of the three VSS members, whose names were announced by Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, as people, who had the phone number of “Krasio from Pleven” on their phone logs. The latter is the person who, allegedly, offered magistrates to secure their appointment to high ranking positions through the vote of the VSS in exchange for EUR 200 000 in cash.