site.btaOutgoing Government Looks Back on Its Term in Office

Sofia, July 30 (BTA) - Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski and other members of the outgoing cabinet on Wednesday reported on the performance of the government during its 14 months in office. They spoke to the media after the Council of Ministers held its last meeting earlier in the day.

Prime Minister Oresharski: It has been a tough political year

"We have gone through a tough year in Bulgaria's contemporary history, perhaps not the toughest one, but certainly one of the most unstable years politically," Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski said. According to him, the government has fulfilled many of the intentions figuring in its programme.

Until May, the government managed to improve the business climate and to reverse negative trends in domestic consumption and investment. "But sadly, there has been some regression over the last couple of months. We have failed to carry through some activities, some key reforms were just started while others were only planned, and I hope they will continue," Oresharski said.

"I resigned as a result of the decisions made during the political consultations with the President. Until then, I had not considered resigning at any point," he said. The government has not approved a Bulgarian candidate to the next European Commission, Oresharski said.

Deputy PM and Justice Minister Zlatanova: 19% of EU Funds Absorbed in Last 14 Months

In 14 months, Bulgaria absorbed 19 per cent of all EU funds against 36 per cent in all preceding years, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Zinaida Zlatanova said. She said that 4.2 billion leva have been paid out. She voiced a hope that the speedy pace of absorption will continue throughout the entire programming period. The EU-Bulgaria Partnership Agreement is expected to be approved next week at the latest, said Zlatanova. She added that operational programmes are being agreed with the European Commission and are expected to be approved by mid-October, meaning that project implementation may start as early as this year.

In her words, the government had to draw up and adopt 13 sectoral strategies during its 14-months term. These strategies begin reform processes, which should continue in the following years, said the Deputy Prime Minister. "One of the greatest successes of this government is to have steered the country on the road to reforms assisted by the European Commission," she said.

Deputy PM Bobeva: Government Received Higher Marks Abroad than at Home

"One specific feature of our work was that we always received higher marks abroad than at home," said Daniela Bobeva, Deputy Prime Minister responsible for Economic Development. She noted that the government has written a bill on reforms in the subsurface resources sector. The bill has been coordinated with the business community and the next governments can carry on with the reforms.

"We have reduced the administrative burden on businesses. There has not been a single meeting of the Council of Ministers which has not made a decision to this effect," Bobeva said. Eleven bills are waiting in the National Assembly, proposing 60 measures to reduce the administrative burden, she said.

Parliament should be proud of the latest amendments to the Public Procurement Act, because they created one of the strongest instruments to combat corruption, she said. "In the field of investments, we chose to promote not only large investments but also small and medium ones," Bobeva said. She noted that earlier in the day the government made another difficult decision in a bid to address problems concerning winter resorts. The government has also made changes to the Consumers Act, has reformed the functioning of the Bulgarian Development Bank, and has set up new Bulgarian commercial services in a number of countries, she said.

"In the field of privatization, we had an ambitious programme, but the Privatization Agency caused a considerable delay in the procedure for selecting an assessor for the Stock Exchange. Nonetheless, the procedure for the Stock Exchange is already underway and three European exchanges have shown interest in it," Bobeva said.

Deputy PM and Interior Minister Yovchev: There have been no surveillance scandals

"We have prevented the Interior Ministry from becoming embroiled in political battles. There have been no scandalous leaks of special surveillance records, no secret surveillance operations against political opponents," said Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tzvetlin Yovchev.

"We coped with one of the most serious crises of the last few years: the refugee crisis. We are now better organized and with an increased capacity. This is an indisputable success of the government, the more so because it coincided with other extremely serious situations, including sociopolitical crises," Yovchev said.

The Interior Minister further reported a 9.1 per cent decline in general crime in the first half of 2014 compared with the first half of 2013. "We put an end to some bad practices by legislative means. We banned [private] donations [to the Interior Ministry], we stopped the commercial activities in the Interior Ministry, and we abolished the infamous practice of letting Ministry resources flow into private companies - particularly as regards security alarm services," he said.

The Interior Ministry successfully handled an extremely serious crisis resulting from large-scale, months-long anti-government protests. The police prevented any serious injuries during the protests, Yovchev said.