Bulgarian Press Review, April 13, 2010

Press Review
Sofia, April 13 (BTA)


THE HOME SCENE
"Troud" comments that GERB is entering a difficult parliamentary session. The author notes that the spring session of the National Assembly will be dominated by two topics: the anti-crisis measures and the effectiveness of the judiciary, both of them urgent and complex. From a political point of view, most urgent is the response to the President's veto of the amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure concerning the so-called backup defence lawyer and the secret witness. The author suggests that it would not be a bad idea if in addition to the President's reasoning for the vetoed amendments, the parliamentary Legal Committee also consider the objections to the provisions of leading human rights organizations.

In the economy, most urgent is the passage of legal amendments to enforce part of the 59 anti-crisis measures of the cabinet. The author says this will be no easy job since the effect of most of the measures is not that apparent, time is short, the expertpotential, limited, the consensus among the parliamentary represented parties is somewhere beyond the horizon while the President will not waste the opportunity to veto the more controversial legal amendments. In this complicated situation the parliamentary majority will either cope with the challenges or this will be its last spring session in Parliament, the author concludes.

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"24 Chassa" writes about a suggestion coming from MPs under which ministers will have to "sit an exam" each week without knowing the test questions. The proposal is to be tabled at the beginning of the spring session of the National Assembly. The idea, coming from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), is to invite cabinet ministers to report during Question Time in Parliament without knowing the questions they will have to answer beforehand and without having a time to prepare their answers. MRF MP Lyutvi Mestan says that such a quick Question Time with surprise questions will demonstrate the real competence of the ministers. A similar idea about a new type of Question Time in Parliament was made a month ago by Borislav Tsekov of the Institute for Modern Politics.

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In "Troud" Justice Minister Margarita Popova comments the President's veto of the amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure saying that the state must put an end to endless prolonging of court trials. Popova denied that misuses will be possible in indictments and sentences based only on information collected by special surveillance means and testimony by a secret witness. According to Popova, the bills are reformist and concern the opportunity of the state to have at its disposal resources to fight corruption and organized crime.

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"Piecemeal Laws, Piecemeal Vetoes" caps an analysis in "24 Chassa" which says that in Bulgaria the formula "everything is a crime" is growing ever more and makes the prosecuting magistracy into an all-competent and all-powerful institution. without control. The comment says that criminal proceedings have turned into a way to "settle accounts". The controversial amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure cannot solve these problems. What is more, the amendments will create additional difficulties. It is perplexing that, according to what top officials have said, the secret witness and the special surveillance means will be only used in high-profile cases, i.e. they will not affect "the ordinary honest average defendant". But the law is for everyone. The implications that it will be for the "worst guys" and that the Interior Ministry will decide who they are, is a cause of concern, says the author of the comment.

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"Troud" quotes Monday's statement by Ivan Kostov, co-chairman of the Blue Coalition and leader of the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB), that the rightist formations and GERB will come further apart if the latter fail to push through reforms. "If GERB gives up on reforms, we will lose our role of a guarantor of the reforms and the distance between us will grow even further," Kostov said, commenting a statement by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov which implied that first the cabinet will plug the leakages of public money and only after that tackle reforms. "GERB can no longer sink in the quagmire of populism if the party wants to keep its leading position," said Kostov and promised that DSB will try to influence the course GERB is taking.

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"BSP Leader Targets MRF's Electorate" reads a headline in "Sega". The daily says that leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and former prime minister Sergei Stanishev made a surprise move announcing the start of his party's active policy in the areas with mixed (Bulgarian and Turkish) population, especially the Rhodope Mountains. "The target are the voters of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF)," the author writes. At the end of last week BSP's Executive Bureau had a meeting in Kurdjali, Southern Bulgaria (one of the strongholds of MRF) and decided to invite the MRF leadership to "an open talk on all problems". Stanishev formulated new tasks for the BSP, among which is to invite Bulgarian Turks to join BSP, and to elect such people in municipal and national leading bodies in a greater scale if BSP wants to see its influence growing.

ECONOMY

All of the Tuesday dailies write about the gap of 1,200 million leva in the budget revenue target . "Sega" notes that the problem with revenue becomes "deeper still". The government expects to have in the public purse 1,200 million leva less than planned, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov told a news briefing here Monday. The incumbents are of the opinion that the problem is mainly due to the economic downturn while the opposition argues that the government is ruining business.

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The Bulgarian Energy Holding, which managers eight state-owned companies, will be closed by the end of June and all relevant procedures will be complied with, "Pari" says, quoting Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov. Initially, the eight companies will function as independent entities, but other ideas are being discussed as well, Traikov said. One option is to group the gas companies in one, another is to have the commercial companies under one umbrella, and the assets, under another. Traikov also said that options are being considered forthe privatization of the National Electric Company (NEC) or parts of it, or offering NEC shares on the stock exchange.

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Interviewed by "Standart News" Chairman of the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (SEWRC) Angel Semerdjiev says that a serious review has started into electricity distributing companies (EDCs) and from now on any cost that is taken into account in the determination of electricity prices will be carefully investigated. He hopes that opportunities will be found to reduce costs. SEWRC will be ever more demanding vis-a-vis and will check all data which the EDCs provide to it. Also, there are ideas to bind the EDCs' performance with prices so that when a company does not meet certain indicators, price hikes will not be allowed, but just the opposite, prices will be cut, Semerdjiev says.

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"Sega" informs that a "budget detective" will be sent to look for information about the so-called secret annexes to some 150 contracts concluded by 13 ministries in the previous cabinet whose recent "discovery" increased the budget deficit for 2009 from 1.9 to 3.7 per cent. The problem is that a unified and consistent system for budget accounting is absent, says "Sega". Financier Emil Hursev says that a single institution: the state treasury, should report and manage all available assets, property and obligations of the state, irrespective of where they are located and which entity is their owner.

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"Troud" writes that the United Democratic Forces (UDF) have found out that in 2008 the Regional Development and Public Works Ministry spent 1,111 million leva without primary accounting documents. The report says that the 2008 audit of the Ministry is invalid as it has not been signed by the person in the National Audit Office in charge of the Ministry in question, Hyussein Chaoush. UDF said that Chaoush did not sign the audit on account of missing documents to support the spending of the money.

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In an interview in "Klassa" Labour and Social Policy Minister Toty Mladenov says that the Council for Tripartite Cooperation (made up by employers, trade unions and the cabinet) will discuss the pension reform by May 31. Mladenov stressed that the pension reform has not stopped, as implied by some recently. He says that there are ways to encourage the longer stay of a person on the labour market. Mladenov assures that after the expert talks at the Council for Tripartite Cooperation there will be an orderly system for pension reform which will be a consensus document.

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"Troud" writes that the National Revenue Agency (NRA) and all Directorates for Social Assistance are launching cross checks of incomes of more well-to-do parents who also draw child benefits. Nearly 30,000 families will be checked whose members' occupations: lawyers, doctors, dentists, etc., suggest that they receive higher incomes that what they state.

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"Troud" reports that in the early summer season 50 leva will be enough for a person to pay for his accommodation, food and drink for a day at the seaside. The report says that the downturn has sobered hotel owners, forcing them to consider the Bulgarian tourists "who are the most loyal of clients and the most prompt of payers," according to the author. High-end hotels along the Northern Black Sea have offers for 50 leva per day all-inclusive. Prices offered by four-star hotels along the Southern Black Sea coast vary from 27 leva per day to 56 leva at the peak of the season, says the report. BTA

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 – April 13

· The funeral for Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Sunday will be attended by President Georgi Purvanov and Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Vessela Cherneva said at a regular briefing on Thursday in the wake of the plane crash near Smolensk, in which many representatives of Poland's political elite were killed.

· Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov Tuesday launched symbolically the first stage of the development of a Contemporary Museum Centre in downtown Sofia. The museum will be completed by the middle of 2012.

· Minister in charge of EU funds Tomislav Donchev said that funds will be reallocated between projects within EU operational programmes and that the government has no current plans to abandon motorway construction projects. Funds will be reallocated within the same operational programme. When a project under the OP Transport fails to be implemented within the budget period, allocated funds could be spent on road rehabilitation, said Donchev, specifying that in EC terms rehabilitation means an overhaul and not patching up potholes.