site.btaPM Borissov Participates in GERB Youth Summer University

Varna, on the Black Sea, September 2 (BTA) - Addressing the participants in the 10th Summer University of GERB's Youth organization, Prime Minister and GERB Chairman Boyko Borissov said his party had consulted the EU and NGOs about its Countercorruption Bill. GERB Floor Leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov added that the bill would be subject to serious discussion between the two readings and could incorporate good provisions of the bill proposed by the Socialist Party.

Talking about economic projects, Borissov said the government was working hard to find an investor in the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project "because 3 billion leva were dumped into Belene". He said he was optimistic that the project could be implemented with major investors, including a Chinese State-owned company.

Regarding the Balkan gas hub project, Borissov recalled that Bulgaria has 80 per cent of the compressor stations in the Balkans. This country is ready to build a gas interconnector with Turkey for about 16 billion cubic metres of natural gas. There will be Bulgarian gas from the Black Sea, as well as gas from Romania, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Greece. He added that gas coming directly from Russia would be needed for a really powerful hub.

Commenting on President Rumen Radev's statement at the G.S. Rakovski National Defence College on Friday that "the modernization projects will not be implemented in the foreseeable future", Borissov stressed that GERB too is in favour of the armed forces' modernization. However, the armed forces' modernization programme is worth 10 billion leva, while the acquisition of new trains for the Bulgarian State Railways would cost 280 million leva.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev and Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski also participated in the forum.

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GERB has expelled Lazar Vlaikov, Chairman of the Municipal Council in the southern town of Septemvri, whose pistol was involved in the murder of a restaurant owner on Thursday. One of the theories is that Vlaikov, acting under the influence of alcohol, took out his pistol to show it to other guests in the restaurant. Then his six-year-old nephew took it and inadvertently shot and killed the man. An investigation is under way.