site.btaMedia Review: June 29

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

24 Chasa reports on Wednesday's selection of Iliana Ivanova as the European Commission's chosen candidate for Commissioner in charge of Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a statement here on June 28 saying that she has decided to propose to the EU Council and the European Parliament to appoint Ivanova to the position. "Both candidates showed great commitment to the European Union and to the job of Commissioner. They also have relevant experience for this post," der Leyen said in the statement. Her decision followed interviews that she held on June 27 with the candidates put forward by the Bulgarian Government: Daniel Lorer and Ivanova. "It is an honour to have my nomination as Bulgarian Commissioner confirmed by the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen. I thank her for her trust to entrust me with one of the most important portfolios related to the future of Europe - that of innovation, research, culture, education and youth", wrote the Commissioner-designate Iliana Ivanova on her Facebook profile.

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Bulgaria will invite Dutch and Austrian customs “experts” to observe operations at the Turkish border to try to ease concerns that are impeding its bid to join the Schengen passport-free travel area, 24 Chasa quotes Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov as telling Politico on Wednesday. Denkov identified Austria and the Netherlands as the two key skeptics on Bulgaria’s entry to Schengen, and said he would hold meetings with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Thursday to address their concerns. These largely focus on migration, particularly at the notoriously problematic Turkish-Bulgarian border, which has long been a major transit point for smuggling people, narcotics and arms from the Middle East into Europe.

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HOME AFFAIRS

Candidate for mayor Vasil Terziev: I want Sofia to be a model city. I love Sofia, this is my city, I believe it has much more potential, I want it to be a city of example. This is what Vassil Terziev, the candidate for mayor of Sofia of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and Save Sofia, said in the programme "More from the day" on Bulgarian National Television, as quoted by 24 Chasa. During the official presentation of his nomination, Terziev announced two of his main priorities - investing in schools and tackling the problem with kindergartens. The other two themes to developed are for transparent and honest governance, engaging citizens, and giving more opportunities to borough mayors to have the means to improve neighborhoods," Terziev added. His main aim is to win the local elections in October.

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Trud also carries an opinion piece on the nomination of Vassil Terziev for Mayor of Sofia by Continue the Change (CC), Democratic Bulgaria (DB) and Save Sofia, supported by Sofia's Team group of varied experts. The piece is written by lawyer Petar Kichashki, Executive Director of the Institute of Modern Politics. Kichashki lists five questions he has to the nominee: 1) he has no previous participation with a particular position in public debate, ever. His greatest problem; 2) he has no political experience. NONE at all; 3) His nomination so far has been announced with a claim suitable for anything urban liberals do. This is always accompanied by a certain amount of hubris; 4) Having no experience in politics nowadays is go-go. But what does Terziev know about Sofia's problems?  City politics is different from national politics; 5) The family, Terziev writes, referring to their connection with communist-era State Security. What needs to be answered is whether he took advantage of its connections to achieve his business success. This is an important and legitimate question. As long as Vassil Terziev does not make an effort to answer the above questions and to make himself look convincing, his candidacy is far from being an automatic winner of the elections in Sofia. And if GERB come up with a solid nomination, then the outcome for the hitherto quite bold and arrogant move could quickly become a fiasco, as history has repeatedly shown, Terziev speculates.

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A committee, but without Peevski, will sift 3 drafts for constitutional amendments, 24 Chasa writes. After another meeting, GERB, PP-DB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) seem to have agreed on the "hefty goals in judicial reform", but leave it to experts in a working group to iron out differences in ideas. "A high degree of agreement on the big goals in judicial reform in its constitutional aspect" (after Hristo Ivanov and Delyan Peevski) and an understanding that an attempt will be made to draft a common bill for changes in the basic law, which will build on the three currently prepared (by GERB, MRF and CC-DB). This is the result of another "constitutional" meeting between the three political formations on Wednesday. This time, besides Justice Minister Atanas Slavov, the leaders - Boyko Borissov, Kiril Petkov, Hristo Ivanov, Atanas Atanasov and Mustafa Karadayi - sat there in person. 77 days after the start of the 49th parliament and a month after the first talks on the issue, the three formations signaled that they are moving the process at a fast pace to achieve a result by late autumn, a deadline set some time ago by the Justice Minister. At the meeting on Wednesday it became clear that the overhaul of the basic law will still go through Delyan Peevski's exit from the parliamentary committee that will review the changes. He himself announced that he was taking a step back in the name of the Constitution because the changes were urgent. At the beginning of the month, the decision of the MRF to put Peevski on the committee with the explanation that he was the author of their concept, blew up the fragile consensus for changes. The CC-DB announced that in order to move forward, Peevski must be removed from it.

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Borissov is making fun of Continue the Change, while they protect his immunity, Duma quotes Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Korneliya Ninova as telling journalists on the sidelines in Parliament.  According to her, Vazrazhdane have radical, extremist and somewhat fascist manifestations. She gave the example of what happened in Parliament and declared it absolutely unacceptable for a party to prevent a freely elected MP from going to the rostrum and speaking. Regarding the constitutional reform, the BSP leader said that when a draft is submitted to the constitutional committee and it becomes operational, the socialist MPs will participate in the discussions in the committee and make their proposals, but not in preliminary ones. She said the Constitution was an extremely serious matter and this Parliament did not have the capacity to deal with this serious issue. Kornelia Ninova said that the BSP would not support the government's budget and would propose an alternative one between the first and second reading. She also said that the Socialists would propose their own package of social measures with an increase in the deficit to 4%.

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The prosecution can now charge Kiril Petkov, writes Sega. Petkov's waiver of his parliamentary immunity is now officially with the prosecutor's office, the press office of the Prosecutor General told "Sega". On June 21, Parliament Chair Rossen Zhelyazkov read from the parliamentary rostrum Petkov's notification that he waived his own protection against criminal prosecution. For comparison - from the announcement that Radostin Vassilev (now an independent, former CC deputy) waived his immunity until he was brought as a defendant by the prosecutor's office took about 3 weeks. Ivan Geshev requested withdrawal of Petkov's immunity just before he was dismissed from the post of Prosecutor General.

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The governance tango is not going very smoothly. What is important, however, is that there is a sense of relief in the public after the hard-fought compromise was reached and a regular government was achieved, sociologist Elena Darieva from the Nasoca Agency told Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). According to her, the more serious problem is the division of society. The sociologist believes that if the cabinet manages to accomplish 2-3 key tasks - Schengen, Eurozone, judicial reform, it will bring credit of trust from the voters, but it will also restore the sense of order and predictability. Local political forces are an extremely important watershed this autumn, Darieva said in an interview with the "Before All" programme. She said they will give different political weight and are likely to break internal symmetry. For GERB and MRF these local elections are particularly important because they have something to defend and something to lose, she stressed. According to her, the European elections will be the second big test at national level. For Vazrazhdane Elena Darieva noted that the party is in an upward electoral trend. According to her, this is the party that is most successfully surfing on the wave of anti-system radicalism, will play a significant role at the local government level and may prove a significant balancer, the sociologist also believes.

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Forty-eight per cent of the people want the government, although it is not ideal, according to an Alpha Research poll presented by Genoveva Petrova on bTV. Twenty percent have a starting trust in the government, 26% - in Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, 43% have a neutral position towards the regular cabinet, 37% - a negative opinion of its activities.  The most trusted among the leaders of the political parties is Boyko Borisov - with 20.5%, followed by DB co-chair Hristo Ivanov with 16.9% and PP co-chair Assen Vassilev with 16.5%.  If the elections were now, 25.1% would vote for GERB, 20.2% for CC-DB, 15.4% for Vazrazhdane, 12.6% for MRF and 8.8% for BSP.  Because of the formation of the government both GERB and CC-DB have sustained electoral damage.

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Political analysts Rumiana Kolarova, Lyubomir Stefanov and former energy minister Miroslav Sevlievski commented in the "Hello, Bulgaria" programme on NOVA TV the future of the Denkov-Gabriel cabinet. "Both the present and the future of this government depend not on a truce, but on the extent to which they will be able to act together and achieve real management goals. The question is not what is the relationship between them, but what result they achieve," Kolarova said.  According to her, we should look at the legislative activity in parliament and the election of people to the bodies with expired terms of office at the moment, and most importantly, first - to pass the budget, and secondly - to pass the 20 laws on the Recovery and Resilience Plan by October. Stefanov commented that the legislation is currently "on hold". "The parliamentary committees are not working and this is a consequence of the coalition not working. Some are disgusted, others are ashamed. However they want to qualify it, textbooks will call it a coalition. According to Sevlievski, our country should make every effort to enter the eurozone.

ECONOMY

24 Chasa carries an interview with financier Pavel Ezekiev, experienced in venture capital and startups. We're all like Formula One drivers now - you give it gas, but you wonder if the tyres will turn in the same direction, says the financier. The state doesn't understand business, and local administrations hold it back out of envy.  There is a lot of incompetence, bureaucracy and negligence. There is now a strong demand for smart capital, so a new type of platform is needed to finance and support small businesses. Inflation will calm down. There is already a cooling in the property market, which is the most solid indicator of the economy. Bulgaria is reacting behind Europe and Europe is reacting behind the US. In Bulgaria, for example, there is already a cooling in the property market, which is the most solid indicator of our economy. Within half a year and at levels surprising to all parties. How is the state the biggest debtor to business and are you optimistic that this will change? The state does not understand business in our country. It is only very recently that individuals with the profile of successful industrialists and significant employers have appeared in ministerial posts in Bulgaria. Sometimes there is an understanding of the needs of business for a stable public administration. But it is often the case that locally it is held back by envy. There is entrenched incompetence, misunderstanding of processes, bureaucracy and carelessness.

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The draft budget for 2023 is a pure technicality of calculation, the Chief Economist of the Institute for Market Economy, Lachezar Bonev, told BNR. We should have a regular budget and some fine-tuning on some of the most pressing issues for the remaining 5 months", underscoring that it will become effective as of August 1. In his words, already with the budget for next year (2024), a choice has to be made whether to have social programmes that will be smaller but for all, or will be targeted and with larger payments but only for those who need it.  "If we are going in the direction of low tax rates for all, everybody has to pay, i.e. there has to be collection because if there are those who don't pay, others have to pay more or the country goes bankrupt," the economist explained. Lachezar Bogdanov stressed that over the past few years Bulgaria has seen a serious growth in pensions, which significantly outpaces inflation: "The same is true for some social payments, for tax benefits for children, which is an increase in the disposable income of working parents."

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Simultaneous payment with euro and leva [?] is the (question) title carried by Trud News, followed by a subtitle that The change could create chaos and happen at the earliest from the beginning of 2024. This became clear from the words of Finance Minister Assen Vassilev in response to a question at the presentation of the budget for 2023. Currently, companies can make transactions in euros, but people are not allowed to shop with the single European currency, the minister said.  Parallel use of the euro means that people can use it in payment and wages can be given in euro, he explained. Vassilev said this could not happen this year. But when asked if it is possible from the beginning of 2024, he said "let's wait for the talks and the European Central Bank with the European Commission". We have no confirmation that such action is possible, he added. The article follows with possible scenarios offered by economists contacted by the daily.