Bulgarian press review, November 23, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, November 23 (BTA)

HOME SCENE

As a result of a possible change planned to be made in the positive list of medicines, expensive medicines will become even more expensive and some distributed to patients free of charge so far will have to be paid for, patients organizations said, according to "Troud." This concerns mainly the medicines used by patients suffering from heart diseases.

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"Prime Minister Boyko Borissov Shows Will for Silent Lustration," "Troud" says in the headline of an interview with Evtim Kostadinov, Chairman of the so-called Commission on Files (declassifying records of former State Security and intelligence agents). In early December, the Commission is going to sign an agreement with a similar commission in Germany on declassification of Stasi archives.

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Last week the government approved amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, thus renewing the idea for a direct access of the Interior Ministry to electronic communication exchanged through mobile phones and the Internet, Aleksander Kashumov from Access to Information Programme writes in "Troud."

Interviewed for "Novinar," Kashumov says that the law on property confiscation "is communism." The EU has not requested Bulgaria to adopt a new law concerning assets acquired by criminal means, he says.

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"24 Chassa" carries an article by Velislava Dureva headlined "Bank Impeachment" discussing the emptying of the account of the presidency some days ago. As of November 18 on, every party, organization and institution, every individual who irritate BB [PM Borissov], who get on his nerves or who do not shut up may find themselves with empty bank accounts, she says. However, no thick-neck or businessman is exposed to such threat.

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Optimism about the development of Bulgaria has dropped by nearly 6 per cent in a month; about 50 per cent of Bulgarians of legal age believe that the situation is getting worse, show the results of the latest national opinion poll conducted by Gallup International for "Klassa." November is the first month after the parliamentary elections and the change of this country's government in which the number of pessimists about Bulgaria's future exceed that of optimists. The approval rating of the government is 41 per cent, down from nearly 50 per cent a month ago.

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"Ataka is on its way up! We are opening new clubs in Turkish areas [i.e. areas populated by ethnic Turks]," Peter Hlebarov MP of Ataka says in an interview for the newspaper of the party under the same name.

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"Sega" publishes part of the results of an inspection carried out by the State Financial Inspection Agency of the state-controlled software company “Informatsionno Obsluzhvane” (Information Support). It was established that the company had let out premises at prices two-fold lower that the
Law-prescribed ones and paid to construction firms amounts that exceeded the contracted prices. It becomes clear from the report that responsible for it is not the former chairman of the company's Management Board Azer Melikov as suggested but the then executive director, Ivo Nikolov, whom PM Borissov described as "a male witch" for his annual remuneration coming up to some 100,000 leva (about 50,000 euro).

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A total of 1,500 million leva a year went to the pockets of senior officials and politicians under Sergei Stanishev, "Standart News" writes referring to Rouslan Stefanov from the Centre for the Study of Democracy. Reportedly, this is the amount of bribes paid by Bulgarian companies to get public procurement contracts; it represents 2 per cent of GDP, economists say.

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A journalistic investigation conducted by "Telegraf" shows that a false diploma in law of St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia can be purchased for 5,500 leva. Both university diplomas and secondary school certificates are available against payment, the newspaper says.

ECONOMY

One in three VAT registered firms cannot be found at the address at which it has been registered, which is a fraud, National Revenue Agency (NRA) Executive Director Krassimir Stefanov says in an interview for "24 Chassa." The NRA has made a total of 1,400 inquiries about dubious deals; fishy deals involving 480 million leva have been cleared so far, he says.

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According to "Monitor," there are nearly 1,000,000 post box companies the purpose of which is to get VAT refund in a fraudulent way. Of 1,200,000 merchants in Bulgaria, only 200,000 have renewed their commercial registration, Registration Agency Director Atanas Georgiev said. Firms which have not renewed their registration may not participate in public procurement tenders.

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In 2010, nearly 60 per cent of social insurance payments will be financed through taxes, Deputy Labour and Social Affairs Minister Hristina Mitreva says in "Dnevnik."

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Plamen Mollov, Chairman of the National Chamber of Viticulture and Winery, says in "Novinar" that raising the excise duty on hard liquor will encourage illegal producers and deliver a blow on the legal ones.

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"Pari" says that the government and the parliamentary Budget Committee are acting out a bad scenario which is well-known. The incumbents are deluding Bulgarians that the decisions are in the hands of the MPs of GERB, the Blue Coalition, Ataka and Order, lawfulness and Justice, which appear in the role of the bad cops and introduce unpopular measures, while PM Borissov appears as the good cop.

BULGARIA - EU

"We think that the European Commission (EC) has not studied the information we gave it or did not consider it thoroughly," Environment and Waters Minister Nona Karadjova says in "Troud." She comments on the EC decision to take legal action against Bulgaria through the European Court of Justice based in Luxembourg over Sofia's baled waste kept on temporary sites near the capital. In her words, this is unjust as there is ample evidence showing that Sofia's household waste is transported to a landfill satisfying all relevant requirements; in addition, there is an operating system for preliminary waste treatment.

Commenting on the same issue in "24 Chassa," Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova says that EC officials will be invited here to see for themselves the progress made and that she expects the issue to be resolved then. The procedure relating to the construction of a waste treatment plant is at an advanced stage, she also says. The plant will be put into operation in 2012.

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There has been some unofficial talk in Brussels that incumbent Bulgarian Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva may be appointed commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy, "Dnevnik" writes.

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Referring to the Sunday Telegraph, "Klassa" writes that in his first speech as EU President Herman Van Rompuy said he would work together with the EC for the introduction of a new "euro tax" that European citizens would pay directly to Brussels to finance the EU budget. Van Rompuy will support the plans of EC President Jose Manuel Barroso for the new tax which would be in the form of a fixed percentage share of VAT and excise duty charged on fuel. Asked to comment on these plans, Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said he did not see economic logic in the idea.

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Political scientist Andrei Raychev says in "Troud" that the choice of the incumbent leaders of the EU shows the big countries in the Community have opted for a model in which the president of Europe is rather an internal mechanism, a balancer, yet another stabilizing transmission rather than a real generator of politics. In a rapidly changing world, Europe chooses the status quo instead of change, Raychev notes. In his view, Europe should rapidly integrate Russia and Turkey in some way as otherwise it will lose its significance. He says it is a shame that Bulgaria, the 12th biggest country in the EU, did not take part in the latest developments. The government thinks only about the European funds, and the public discusses the remuneration a European commissioner gets, Raychev observes.

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"24 Chassa" highlights the news that 2010 will entirely change the functions of television. The interactive digital television, expected to be well established in two or three years here, can be used to send and get SMS, to surf the Internet, to exercise parental control, etc. which will radically change the big television companies.

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 – November 23, 2009

· A totally unique brand new internet search engine appeared online Monday. The search engine is called “Krasyo” after Krasimir Georgiev – the man who is in the center of a large scale corruption scandal in Bulgaria’s judicial system. Georgiev was allegedly an intermediary offering the “sale” of top magistrate positions about EUR 200 000.
The unique new search engine named after Krasio is located at http://www.krasyo.net/. Once the user types a words, the engine automatically combines it with the name of Krasio (in Bulgarian) thus discovering related Internet content.

30 acting high-ranking Bulgarian magistrates, and 14 candidates for top positions (5 of whom already appointed), and 4 Members of Parliament have been exposed to have been in contact with Krasio after the scandal broke out. The case is still under investigation.

· Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will submit a signal about conflict of interest against Iskra Fidosova, chairwoman of the parliamentary group of Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB).
BSP says Fidosova’s declaration regarding any possible conflict of interest reads she pays back three credits. Two of them total BGN 6,700. She has to pay back BGN 40,000 in the third one. BSP spokeswoman Korneliya Ninova says Fidosova cannot cover the payments in the credit with her salary as an MP, which is some BGN 2,500-BGN 3,000.