Bulgarian Press Review, October 27, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, October27 (BTA)

THE HOME SCENE

An investigation codenamed "Weasel" against a minister of the Sergei Stanishev Cabinet, but not of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) quota, has disappeared from the State Agency for National Security (SANS) under its previous leadership, "24 Chassa" reports. It was supposed to establish whether the minister in question has received a 100,000 euro commission for the implementation of a major project by a foreign company at several Bulgarian central-government departments. According to the daily, the SANS was alerted by a former Finance Ministry employee whose subsequent private business included the implementation of such projects but was rejected as a contractor by the minister in question because he refused to pay a commission. Instead, the project was awarded to a company of a EU country which, however, paid the 100,000 euro and the project was implemented under the auspices of the minister in several central-government departments in 2007-2008.

Former Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will be questioned by prosecutors in a matter of days. He will be asked to give evidence in a case instituted in connection with a SANS report concerning high-level corruption that has been removed from the Council of Ministers, "Monitor" reports in its top story. The investigation is intended to detect who is responsible for the classified information leak. The questioning will be conducted by a prosecutor of the secret department, and Sofia City Prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov will be present at it.

"The SANS report, returned by Aleksei Petrov, is available online, with [energy lobbyist Stefan] Gamizov as a protagonist in it, surrounded by senior bureaucrats, Stanishev advisors, cops, journalists, PR, [energy moghul Hristo] Kovachki and [Serbian drug lord] Sreten Jocic," "24 Chassa" writes. "Tatyana Doncheva and Gamizov were allegedly closely linked, and Kovachki financed the energy lobbyst's televised appearances, according to the first part of the SANS report that shook the State," the paper writes.

Gamizov told the paper that two years ago he was helping then SANS Chairman Petko Sertov to counteract organized crime patronized by politicians and security services because Gamizov was close to a US corporate entity specialzed in investigating corruption and in setting up special countercorruption units in state structures. The idea was to set up a unit in the SANS to persecite organized crime and its patrons within the law. "24 Chassa" quotes Aleksei Petrov as saying that he will ask prosecutors to hold former SANS deputy chairman Ivan Drashkov criminally liable for stating untrue information in the report. Under the heading "Drashkov Report: Spy Soap Opera," "Standart News" writes that Sertov ordered a psychiatric expert analysis of Gamizov, and Doncheva brought down Interior Minister Roumen Petkov.

According to "Sega", along with the clash of two lobbies in the secret service, the report demonstrates how two lobbyists twist around their little finger all advisers of the prime minister in a bid to push their project through the Council of Ministers. "The document is actually the most eloquent proof of the effectiveness of operation of the service and provides sufficient arguments for its closure," the daily writes.

"Troud" runs an article entitled "SANS: to reorganize or to close?"."Borissov threatened to close 'Media Project' SANS," "Dnevnik" notes.

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Five ministers of the Boyko Borissov Cabinet have declared that they may find themselves in a conflict of interest because persons closely linked to them participate in companies and associations connected with their portfolios, "Sega" writes in its top story. Some ministers even admitted that at the time of submission of the conflict of interest declarations there were circumstances incompatible with their position because they were managing directors or managerial agents of companies with which they will have to deal as ministers. None, however, has identified as closely linked persons any political or business partners on whom they may become dependent. Ministers Rossen Plevneliev of Regional Development and Public Works, Totyu Mladenov of Labour and Social Policy, Bozhidar Nanev of Health, Vezhdi Rashidov of Culture and Miroslav Naydenov of Agriculture and Food have declared a private interest arising from the activity of persons closely linked with them.

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"Dnevnik" reports on its front page that Bourgas Appellate Court President Dora Chineva and Bourgas District Prosecutor Angel Angelov have tendered their resignations to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). They have both been implicated in telephone contacts with influence monger Krassimir "Krassyo" Georgiev, who allegedly arranged magisterial appointments for large payoffs.

"Troud" reports that Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) demands the shortening of the terms of office of the prosecutor general and the presidents of the Supreme Administrative Court and the Supreme Court of Cassation from seven to five years and for cutting the number and term of office of the SJC members (now the SJC has 22 elected and appointed members serving five-year terms, plus the presidents of the two supreme courts and the prosecutor general, who are members by right). Since such changes would require an amendment to the Constitution, the DSB has approached the GERB Parliamentary Group for the formation of a constitutional amendment committee and are awaiting their answer.

"Standart News" reports on its front page that the kidnappers of student Roumen Gouninski have texted his businessman father a 500,000 euro ransom demand, giving him three weeks to pay the money so as to get his son back alive.

"The few surviving VIS and SIC bosses have held a secret meeting at which they agreed not to stand in each other's way and to keep even their personal business interests apart," "Express" writes on its front page. The deal was prompted by the economic crisis, the changes in the market and the entry of new figures in the criminal underworld. VIS and SIC were the two major organized crime conglomerates in the 1990s.

"GERB is feeding the fat cats in City Hall," Socialist candidate for Sofia mayor Georgi Kadiev says.

"The fee for an ecclesiastical divorce in the capital city will treble if the Sofia Metropolitanate increases it from 12 to 30 leva as planned," "Troud" writes in a press release. At present, some 100 decisions on dissolution of a religious marriage are issued in Sofia annually, and they are fewer in the smaller eparchies: 39 in Varna, and just six in Vratsa last year, the paper says. "When they divorce, people forget that they must also dissolve their holy matrimony, otherwise they cannot remarry," "Troud" notes, adding that the church allows a person to remarry up to three times after the first divorce.

ECONOMY

The trade unions reject the 2010 draft budget, according to front-page reports in "Klassa", "Douma" and "Zemya" and an inside page item in "Troud." "Dnevnik" has headlined its coverage "Trade Unions: 2010 Budget Will Spark Strikes." "The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) has fundamental differences with the Government on the budget philosophy and the 2010 budget items," CITUB Vice President Plamen Dimitrov said. As he puts it, the reduced allocations for active labour market measures will push the unemployment rate up to 15-16 per cent next year, as was the case in 2003 and over 500,000 people will find themselves on the labour exchange. "The 2010 budget is restrictive and through it the Finance Ministry is trying to shift part of the burdens of the crisis onto wage earners and the poorest population strata. That is why we cannot support it," reads a position of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour, quoted in "Troud." "The Bulgarian Industrial Association welcomes the idea to prepare a balanced and prudent budget, but regards as overoptimistic its estimates of a 2 per cent contraction of GDP and 3,300 million leva foreign investments," "Troud" notes. "The expected dollar exchange rate of 1.45 leva is also unrealistic and will affect the country's trade deficit. Again the business community is consulted only perfunctorily," "Pari" comments.

Unique Estate detected a 40 per cent dive in the prices of luxury real estate, according to "Troud." "The supply of luxury real estate has doubled," "Monitor" observes.

"I see no point in a single financial supervision," Financial Supervision Commission Chairman Peter Chobanov says in a "Dnevnik" interview. "One of our principal tasks is to remove administrative obstacles, regardless of the crisis and the calls to tighten regulations," he adds, noting that a distinction should be drawn beteen regulations and needless red tape.

"We will not ban gambling; something should be done to regulate electronic gambling as well," National Assembly Budget and Finance Committee Chair Menda Stoyanova told "Novinar."

"Troud" runs an open letter from poet Nedyalko Yordanov to the Prime Minister under the heading "Bourgas - Alexandroupolis: a Crime against Bulgaria."

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 27, 2009

· Prime Minister Boyko Borissov believes that the prosecuting magistracy should press charges very quickly and take to court all persons involved in the developments concerning the classified report that has recently been the focus of public attention. "This should be done if we want to prevent the disintegration of the state," he told journalists Tuesday. Borissov said he would fire the administrators in the Council of Ministers' Classified Section who concealed the fact that the former Prime Minister Stanishev failed to return this report and other documents. He will also recall the former SANS Chairman Petko Sertov from Thessaloniki where he serves as Bulgarian Consul.

· Today the interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov confirmed anonymous signal that the kidnapped Rumen Gyninski Jr. has been abandoned in a villa exurb nearby Sofia was received at 166 police phone number. It appeared the house has been abandoned but the student was not found there, Tsvetanov stated. “Everything up to now is false,” he said.

· The European Commission Tuesday adopted a proposal on the extension of financial support to Bulgaria for the decommissioning of units 1 to 4 of the „Kozloduy” Nuclear Power Plant and for the mitigation of the economical consequences, the Commission said in a press release. The proposal covers a sum of 300 million euro for the period between 2010 and 2013.