site.btaBSP-Left Bulgaria Is against Sofia Airport Concession

BSP-Left Bulgaria Is against Sofia Airport Concession

Sofia, May 19 (BTA) - BSP-Left Bulgaria is against the Sofia Airport concession, said here the Parliamentary Group's Spokesperson Zhelyo Boychev at a Thursday news conference. The socialists urged the Government to put on hold its plans and replace the Airport's senior management.

The Council of Ministers decided Tuesday to award a concession for Sofia Airport.
The net effect of the concession is projected at 1,200 million leva. The concessionaire is expected to pay an initial lump-sum royalty of 600 million leva. The concession will be awarded for 35 years. Тhe government wants to invest the royalty in the recovery of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ), but the European Commission should decide first that this does not constitute unlawful state aid.

BSP will do everything possible to prevent the concession award procedure, said Boychev. "There is no way we will accept awarding a concession for a profitable business," he said.

There is already a new terminal, a new tower, a metro station, Socialist MP Dragomir Stoynev said. According to him, the future concessionaire will profit from airport fees, which the passengers will have to pay. "We will have much more expensive tickets," he said. According to the law, revenues generated from the concession must go to the State Fund for Guaranteeing the Sustainability of the State Pension System (the so-called "Silver Fund"), and can not be spent, Stoynev recalled.

Georgi Svilenski noted that the money from the concession can not be used to save BDZ. He said that the Airport's managers are failing to collect airport taxes and fees. There are over 70-80 million leva in outstanding fees, 60 million of which are owed by a single company, he added.