Bulgarian press review, March 16, 2010

Press Review
Sofia, March 16 (BTA)


HOME SCENE

"Boyko: I Sent Djankov to President with Flag of Truce" is the headline of a "Troud" item which says that Prime Minister Boyko Borissov on Monday tried to distance himself from the impeachment of President Georgi Purvanov, referring the problem to Parliament and the Constitutional Court. "It's not my move now, this is not my problem. My move was played in a very clear way by sending [Finance] Minister [Simeon] Djankov to call on the President with a flag of truce," Borissov is quoted as saying. However, Purvanov does not want this page to be closed, the prime minister said at a joint news conference with European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva. Georgieva also took Djankov's side and said that in the conditions of a global financial crisis "we are not the only ones dancing tango : two steps ahead, one step back."

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"Purvanov's impeachment is not the cause of GERB but of [Democrats for Strong Bulgaria leader] Ivan Kostov," political scientist Tatyana Bouroudjieva says in an interview given to "Novinar." In her view, the collection of MPs' signatures on a motion to impeach the head of state is "an act of symbolic personal commitment on the part of the respective persons to a common cause. GERB is creating this communion of a cause at the moment. It is another question that this is not the cause of GERB but rather of the old UDF [Union of Democratic Forces], of Ivan Kostov who practically used to tolerate the opposition criticism Purvanov levelled at him as leader of the BSP [Bulgarian Socialist Party] at the time. It seems that this is a very personal, painful moment Kostov has not been through with yet. In the person of Purvanov, the BSP achieved something that is difficult to forgive. This is the cause of Kostov and of DSB, not even of the UDF. At the moment, GERB is behaving like a party that operates under other people's dictate," Bouroudjieva says.

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"Purvanov: Check the Donors of Family-owned Foundations," "Novinar" says in a headline. Responding to PM Borissov's suggestion about a check on oligarchs, President Purvanov called for a probe of those well-off Bulgarians who benefited from privatization during the transition years and made considerable donations to major family-owned foundations of Bulgarian politicians. Commenting on Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov's statement that a letter would be sent to the Presidency requesting the names of oligarchs to which the law-enforcement authorities have "a special attitude," Purvanov said the minister should know that the presidential institution was not in possession of such information.

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"24 Chassa" carries an interview with Prof. Dimiter Yonchev, a security expert and one of the architects of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), headlined "I Have Written Off SANS after the Scandals". In Yonchev's words, a national security strategy should have been adopted first to define the place and role of the agency, as well as its relationship with the other components of national security and then establish the agency itself. Anyway, now the agency has been gradually finding its identity and emerges from the state of information closedness, he notes. It tries to resolve its problems and most probably has future.

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"24 Chassa" comments on an opinion poll the MBMD agency held in Sofia and Bulgaria's big cities last weekend which shows that the cabinet wins the debate with the head of state. PM Borissov (approved by 58 per cent) and Interior Minister
Tsvetanov (56 per cent) enjoy considerably higher ratings than President Purvanov (40 per cent). However, the contemplated impeachment procedure is supported by 34 per cent of respondents while 51 per cent are against it.

ECONOMY

"Government Starts Urgent Privatization," "Sega" says on it front page. The government will accelerate the privatization of all state-owned minority shares held in companies. The Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism will consolidate the 55 state-owned minority shares in a holding company which will quote its own shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said on Monday. In parallel to it there will be a process of classical privatization implemented through competitions and tenders. The purpose of the cabinet is to revive the stock market and ensure solid contributions to the Silver Fund [a state fund guaranteeing stability to the public pension system]; by law, 90 per cent of all privatization proceeds go into this Fund. This will stabilize the fiscal reserve, too, as the Silver Fund is part of it.

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Referring to PM Borissov, "Troud" reports that in February the government paid 650 million leva to companies in settlement of its debts, promising to pay another 250 million leva to the business. Borissov apologized to people "locally" that he is faced by a fait accompli and has got to pay to "circles and rings of companies" because there are contracts concluded with them. Otherwise the companies to which the government is indebted may sue him, he said. According to Borissov, in July the national budget will be updated. He described the millions of leva that had been poured into energy projects as "crazy, criminal waste" citing as an example the Belene N-plant project and the Tsankov Kamuk Dam.

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"24 Chassa" writes that as of April, 150,000 civil servants, including policeman, the military and civil service clerks, will have to pay a share of their health and social insurance contributions, all of which have so far been covered by the state. On Monday the cabinet gave up the idea of increasing the portion of the health insurance contribution paid by those employed in the private sector from 8 to 10 per cent. "Everybody should be equal before the law. It is not fair to make some people pay while others do not," Djankov is quoted as saying. According to estimates of the Finance Ministry, the remuneration of public sector employees will drop by 12 per cent as a result of making them pay social and health insurance contributions. In this way the government is expected to economize 150 million leva.

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"Let us make clear the foggy part of the health care reform," "Troud" says. A reform consists of two parts: the way in which the money is collected and the way in which it is expended. "You cannot get the right answer about revenues when you have not the right answer about expenditures. Now the incumbents are trying to focus on the way of collecting the money and how much more they could collect to spend it on an unreformed second part, i.e. to cover unreformed expenses. The second part of the reform should be ready first, i.e. the foggy part of it should be made clear, and then the incumbents can go and tell people: we need that amount of money for the reformed part and divided by the number of working people, this means that they have to pay such and such insurance contributions."

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"GERB does not have a vision about pulling out of the crisis," UDF leader Martin Dimitrov says in an interview for "Sega." In his words, "raising the health insurance contribution rate is insane." "It is like adding fuel to the fire," he says. According to Dimitrov, 2010 will be a very difficult year, there will be a boom of bankruptcies and unemployment will increase. The UDF proposes to reduce tax and social insurance rates and believes that the state should help the business to survive instead of paying more and more benefits to the jobless and the poor.

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"The number of civil servants should be substantially downsized," Menda Stoyanova MP of GERB who chairs the Budgetary and Finance Committee of the National Assembly, says in an interview given to "Monitor." In her view, the anticrisis measures suggested by the UDF are unacceptable at the moment because tax and social insurance rates are among the lowest in Europe and the world. "The budget and the currency board arrangement do not allow us to restrict further the revenue side of the budget," Stoyanova says. The economy has not registered and is not expected to register any tangible growth, therefore there will be nothing with which to compensate a reduction of taxes, she says.

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Interviewed for "Troud," former finance minister Plamen Oresharski MP of Coalition for Bulgaria says that Bulgaria is threatened by a Greek scenario of financial instability but is still far away from it and that he believes the government will find a way to prevent it. His commendation is that the cabinet should be in no hurry to spend money from the fiscal reserve. If the fiscal reserve is expended and revenue collectability is not improved, the government will have to look for another source of money. And if this source is an arrangement with the International Monetary Fund, Bulgaria will not be allowed to enter "the waiting room" of the Eurozone [EMR2].

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"We Are Not Well but We Are Not Greece Either," reads the headline of an article in "Sega." According to its author, there may be a wave of protests in Bulgaria but only because the government "organizes them, no matter how absurd this may sound." The Interior Ministry employees are going to stage protests on Saturday, followed by the employees of the judiciary and civil servants because their incomes will be cut down as the state refuses to cover their social insurances any more. However, the author describes the problem of social insurance contributions and who pays them, of incomes and of who has or has not the right to protest as a minor problem, saying that the big problem is that the government cannot implement its budget at the moment. "Now it does not have money for health care, tomorrow it will lack money for education. And will prompt protests again. And finally nobody will pay the state anything. As it is in Greece now. But even then we will not be like them. We will not protest, we will stop using the services of the state."

BULGARIA - EU

In the Justice and Home Affairs section of the European Commission interim report on Bulgaria's progress, expected to be published on Friday, the government is praised for its political will to combat organized crime while the justice system is criticized for the lack of convictions. The judiciary is reproached for the poor results in fighting high-level corruption and organized crime, but on the other hand the efforts of the Interior Ministry to cope with the underworld are described in positive terms.
In an interview given to "Standart News" Justice Minister Margarita Popova explains that the European Commission interim reports register facts and outline trends. Assessment phrases are rare in them and that is why they are particularly important, she says. "The reports are brief but very helpful to check whether one is moving in the right direction at the right speed. They can easily be subjected to a comparative analysis and encourage constancy," Popova says. In her words, by talking with its European partners "in one language" help reach the same conclusions about what has been accomplished and what has not.


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 – March 16, 2010

· The Bulgarian MEPs from all political groups will ask next week for a meeting with European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule to present him with the cases of human rights infringement in the Republic of Macedonia, in which citizens with Bulgarian identity are involved, in particular the case with Spaska Mitrova, the press service of the socialists in the European Parliament announced. The Bulgarian MEPs plan to focus on the violation of the Copenhagen criteria in the area of human rights in an EU candidate country. Living in RM with a Bulgarian passport Spaska Mitrova lost the custody of her baby girl to her former Macedonian husband after a ruling of the Macedonian Court in the town of Gevgelia.

· Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit Bulgaria on March 18-19, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Vessela Cherneva said at a regular briefing on Tuesday. Davutoglu will meet Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov, President Georgi Purvanov, National Assembly Chair Tsetska Tsacheva and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

· Speaking at the opening of a three-day conference on counter corruption best practices for Europe, US Ambassador here James B. Warlick commended the Bulgarian Government for its efforts to fight corruption and organized crime. The three-day conference is arranged by the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, with the support of the US Embassy in Sofia. Ambassador Warlick stressed in his opening speech that "the work that is going on in Bulgaria today is brave," adding that "this government has taken some important, huge steps in the area of law enforcement to arrest key figures in the organized crime."

· The Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office unit specialized in investigating abuse of EU funds submitted 60 indictments to court since the start of 2010, the unit's head, prosecutor Angelina Mitova, told a news conference here on Tuesday. Twenty-one sentences have come into effect. In comparison, some 125 indictments were submitted in 2009, with 28 effective sentences. Eighty-five case files were suspended, added prosecutor Mitova. The largest number of irregularities were detected under the single area payment scheme.