site.btaMedia Review: September 12

POLITICS

Nova TV reports that the anti-corruption law will be voted on second reading by Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee. The idea is to split the Counter-Corruption and Unlawfully Acquired Assets Forfeiture Commission into two. One unit will deal with fighting corruption, and the other - with forfeiture of illegal assets. The anti-corruption commission will have a rotating chairman and six members. Investigative inspectors are also being introduced.

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Speaker of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova is paying an official visit to Bulgaria at the invitation of her Bulgarian counterpart Rosen Zhelyazkov, said the press centre of Parliament as quoted by 24 Chasa. Plenary talks between the two officials and MPs from both institutions are scheduled to take place in the East Hall. Gafarova’s schedule also includes meetings with President Rumen Radev and Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov.

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BNR and other media report that registration is open for the local elections on October 29. The deadline is Wednesday. Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and There Is Such a People (TISP) are expected to submit their registration papers to the Central Election Commission.

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The Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg are voting on the candidacy of Iliana Ivanova as the next EU Commissioner from Bulgaria. The vote is expected to take place at 1:00 pm Bulgarian time. Ivanova is expected to take the post of commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth until the end of the Commission's mandate next autumn.

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"The war in Ukraine has set the world relations in a completely different way. We want the foreign aspect – the security of the country, our relations with the EU and NATO – to be spelled out clearly and unambiguously in the Constitution. There are growing signs of a desire by certain groups, supporters of the Kremlin, to question this status of Bulgaria,” said former Bulgarian ambassador to the US Elena Poptodorova on the air of bTV after she, former president Rosen Plevneliev, former foreign minister Solomon Passy and other public figures and organisations proposed that Bulgaria's membership in the European Union and NATO be written into the Constitution, as well as that referendums on leaving the Euro-Atlantic structures be banned.

"Let us allow the National Assembly to be the institution where such issues are decided, not the street," she said.

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24 Chasa reports that Minister of Youth and Sport Dimitar Iliev discussed the opportunities for cooperation in the field of sport and youth policies with Cuban Ambassador to Bulgaria Marieta Garcia Jordan. The highlight of the talks was the signed agreement between the two countries, providing for the exchange of coaches, experts and specialists in the sports sector.

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Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov dismissed Deputy Minister of Health Boyko Penkov, the press centre of the Council of Ministers announced as quoted by Nova TV. The decision was taken because of slow pace of work, which put at risk the implementation of important measures in the field of health care, set out in the governance programme.

ECONOMY

Since last month, some of the banks in Bulgaria once again foresee an increase in banking service fees, especially for cash transactions, BNT reports. 

The rise in fees is not provoked by a collapse in profits, experts are adamant. Banks' profit at the end of July was a record high of over BGN 2 billion, and by the end of the year it could reach BGN 3 billion, financial consultant Stoyne Vasilev said.

According to another expert, Deyan Vassilev, there is a push towards digitisation of banking services, and the drive of financial institutions is towards less and less use of human resources because of high salaries, as well as decreasing use of cash.

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According to BNR, the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber, whose members include 13 established branch agricultural organisations, sent an open letter to Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev and Agriculture Minister Kiril Vatev, urging them to take timely action to save the agriculture sector.  After describing the dire situation in agriculture, the authors of the letter announce that they want the ban on sunflower imports from Ukraine to be extended, compensation of BGN 213 million to be paid by September 30 for the war in Ukraine, and BGN 20 million to be paid immediately to compensate farmers whose areas have been completely destroyed by disasters.

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The restaurant industry is far from recovery, said chairman of the Bulgarian Restaurant Association Richard Alibegov on BNT.

Owners of restaurants oppose the return of 20% VAT. The rate was reduced to 9% because of the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences. Last week, however, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov commented that he saw no reason why VAT should remain reduced.

"We think that the Prime Minister should speak in figures and have analyses in front of him, instead of just saying that there is a big or small tourist flow. It is clear and the data shows that tourists this year are more compared to 2022 but much fewer than 2019 and early 2020," Alibegov said, adding that the sector is far from recovery because the damage from the coronavirus lockdowns is huge.

MISCELLANEOUS

Staff of the Sheinovo Maternity Hospital are protesting against the removal of the director Dr. Rumen Velev from his post. They are adamant that they do not want Dr. Tanya Andreeva to be appointed by the Sofia Municipal Council. The dissatisfaction of the medics is against the competition for the election of the director, in which Dr. Velev received an evaluation that is sufficient to continue to occupy the post.

"We are against the way this is happening. You cannot have someone decide at the last minute that a person is inconvenient, and have the position he is entitled to taken away from him. Dr Velev is an outstanding professional," the protesters added.

The protests will continue until September 14, when a meeting of the Sofia City Council is scheduled to review the decision, BNR reports.

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Dnevnik writes that for nearly a month, Mayor of Varna Ivan Portnih has failed to answer questions related to the systematic pollution of the city beaches with sewage over the past five years. This came to light after the director of the regional eco-inspection, Ercan Sebaitin, told the media that for at least five years the Portnih administration had failed to respond to reports of the pollution of the city's beaches with sewage water, thousands of sanitary towels and even faecal matter. According to him, apart from the coastal establishments, the pollution was also caused by overdevelopment, for which the Portnih administration was directly to blame.

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A new protest after the double homicide in the village of Lozen near Sofia. Relatives of the victims gather to honour the memory of Yana Velinova and Ivo Kolev, but also to remind the institutions about the case. In addition to demanding life imprisonment for Chavdar Boyadzhiev, who is in custody for the murders, the relatives insist that the topic of violence should not be closed. The protest is expected to block the roundabout on the southern arc of the ring road at the turn-off for the village, Nova TV reports.

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Reconstruction continues in the village of Kosti, which was most affected by the floods last week. So far the work is going very well, the ravine has been cleaned and no problems are expected, the mayor of the village Anton Angelov told BNT, adding that drinking water has been provided for the residents.

BNR adds that the declared state of emergency in the municipality of Tsarevo after the floods of September 5 remains in force. Measures are being taken to solve the problem of the landslides in Ahtopol, which intensified after the disaster.