site.btaMedia Review: December 11

The draft constitutional amendments and Austria being ready to soften its position on Bulgaria’s entry in Schengen dominate Monday’s news media.

POLITICS
 
Telegraf writes on its front page that judging by information circulated by Austrian media over the weekend, Bulgaria might join the European border-free area but only when it comes to its airspace borders. 
 
In an interview for Dnevnik.bg, German Ambassador to Bulgaria Irene Maria Plank comments that her country does not think Schengen will be negatively affected by Bulgaria joining it. Germany considers Bulgaria an EU Member State that is an expert on the region and to which Berlin turns when they want to understand what is happening here. In the Ambassador’s words, Bulgaria is yet to fully realize its big importance and use it, including when it comes to reforming and enlarging the EU. “We could be an important couple in promoting that process,” she says. She comments that properly reforming the Constitution takes time, because it requires a lot of talks and dialogue. The current government and National Assembly have that time, so Bulgaria is on the right path. The situation with the rule of law is not perfect, she notes.
 
On Bulgarian National Television’s (BNT) morning show, political expert Strahil Deliyski and Lyubomir Stefanov and political PR Nidal Algafari commented on whether Bulgaria’s possible accession to Schengen is a job half done or a real success. According to Stefanov, Bulgaria being allowed into Schengen by air is a good start and a sign that the Government is doing what it set out to do and has the power to finish the job. According to Deliyski, this is the first step in a long process, and the Government should not stop here but say what the next steps are, so that this success does not become something temporary. According to Algafari, Austria has the right to not allow Bulgaria to become a full Schengen member, because there still are ways for illegal migrants to cross the Bulgarian borders. In his words, until we get our own garden in order, Austria and the Netherlands will keep Bulgaria out of the border-free area.  
 
On Nova TV’s morning show, former foreign minister Nadezhda Neynski commented that Austria’s new conditions for Bulgaria’s and Romania’s entry in Schengen, such as the welcoming of additional refugees, are not logical, because the two countries cannot possibly meet additional entry requirements. Also, Bulgaria performs its commitments as an EU Member State. “We insist that our responsibilities [for migrants and asylum seekers] should be balanced and solidary. Those not yet accepted in Schengen should not have to pay for their membership with the welcoming of additional refugees,” she noted. 
 
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In an interview for Telegraf, constitutional law expert Prof Plamen Kirov comments on the bill to amend the Constitution tabled by the Government. He puts an emphasis on the proposed change in the national holiday, noting that the power holders harbour a raging hatred towards March 3, Liberation Day.

On Bulgarian National Radio, Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria head Valentin Nikolov and lawyer Mihail Ekimdzhiev commented on the draft constitutional revisions. Nikolov warned that the amendments put the prosecution service under complete political control, because 6 out of the 10 members of the Supreme Judicial Council’s Prosecutors Chamber will be elected by Parliament, and the prosecutor general is a member by right, leaving only 3 prosecutors nominated by the professional community. The prosecution services’ independence is not an end in itself or a privilege, he argued. The texts concerning the prosecution service will have an impact not so much on the institution itself as on all Bulgarian citizens, he also said. Part of the texts envisage a drastic cut in the prosecution services’ powers. The figure of the prosecutor general is emptied of content, reducing them from an all-powerful prosecutor to a mere administrator. Ekimdzhiev said that the Association of Prosecutors is filled with avatars of former prosecutors general Ivan Geshev and Sotir Tsatsarov, so no assistance can be expected from them in reforming the Judiciary. “These people are not just uninterested: they are in their comfort zone in the current pro-corruption status quo,” the lawyer argued, adding that the institution needs re-establishment. 

On BNT’s morning show, lecturer in constitutional law Assoc Prof Nataliya Kisselova and legal expert Ivan Gregov commented on the draft constitutional changes. According to Gregov, the revisions are not so bad in themselves and people should not be so overly critical. The new members of the Prosecutors Chamber will, in one way or another, reduce the prosecutor general’s influence where it used to be huge, the expert argued. According to Kisselova, all proposed changes in the bill concerning the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court should be dropped between first and second reading, because seven days is not enough time to properly amend the amendments. 

On bTV’s morning show, experts commented on whether the Constitution needs amending and what risks lie in that. Political expert Prof Maria Pirgova argued that there is no need to revise the entire Constitution only to get a new Supreme Judicial Council; furthermore, the constitutional changes adopted in a hurry will hardly be effective. The option to exercise control over the prosecutor general has been introduced already through the revisions to the Judicial System Act, she recalled. Economist Evgeniy Kanev commented that there are good decisions in the bill to amend the Constitution, such as the control over the prosecutor general and the regulation of the caretaker government, but there are also risks that may worsen the country’s democratic order. Political expert Tsvetanka Andreeva said that the parliamentary majority is strong, and it carries a reformist energy. However, many compromises can leave the reforms senseless. Also, if the reforms are too radical, the revisions might be declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, she warned.

On Nova TV’s morning show, former justice minister and current MP of Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria Nadezhda Yordanova commented that the constitutional changes will ensure a truly independent court and an effective prosecution service where the prosecutor general is not all-powerful and cannot interfere in every prosecutor’s cases, allowing the prosecuting magistracy to focus on criminal cases.  According to her, a bigger political quota in the Supreme Judicial Council’s Prosecutors Chamber will ensure greater public control.

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Segabg.com reports that the Sofia City Prosecution Office has terminated the pre-trial proceedings launched on an alert by INSA OIL petroleum company head Georgi Samuilov to former prosecutor general Ivan Geshev. The prosecution service told Sega the proceedings were launched in March 2022, after Samuilov alerted the prosecuting magistracy that at a meeting on January 5, 2022, then deputy prime minister [and current Finance Minister] Assen Vassilev told him to talk GERB leader Boyko Borissov and Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP Delyan Peevski into leaving politics. Samuilov refused, resulting in frequent checks into INSA OIL by the Customs Agency, the National Revenue Agency, and the State Reserve. In the course of the proceedings, the prosecution service established that the petroleum company had indeed been subjected to many checks, which did not establish any violations; however, such checks had been made into other companies as well at the time. Vassilev was questioned and he denied having said what Samuilov claims. There was contradictory evidence on whether a meeting was actually held on January 5, 2022, but even if Vassilev said what he said, the supervising prosecutor believes that was no exercise of pressure. The pre-trial proceedings were terminated in August 2023 and were later confirmed by the Sofia Appellate Prosecution Office.

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In an interview for Trud, parliamentary Committee on Education and Science Chairman Krassimir Valchev talks about the Government’s recently announced plans to reform school education. According to him, at least five years of consistent political pressure on the Education Ministry’s administration and non-party consensus are needed to make the reforms happen, given that there is internal resistance to them in the Education Ministry. In his words, the three most important reforms are: changing school programmes to lighten pupils’ workload; reforming the assessment methods; and changing the domineering culture of formalism. Unfortunately, the 2024 State Budget Bill does not treat education as a priority; the funding for the sector is reduced in real terms for a third consecutive year. The Finance Minister saves BGN 200 million from teachers’ salaries, despite making promises during the election campaign that he will increase them.
 
ECONOMY

Trud’s front-page story goes that the state budget for 2024 has a hole in it even before its adoption. Key sectors have requested more money but have been turned down by the Finance Ministry. For example, the Ministry of Transport has requested an additional BGN 62 million for the passenger railway transport, where no raise in funding has been seen since 2022 against the backdrop of higher minimum salaries, electricity prices, and fuel prices. The lack of enough money for salaries might result in a strike and the country’s entire transport system getting blocked in 2024. Also, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency has requested BGN 1.314 million to increase the salaries of nuclear specialists, but to no avail. This creates a risk of personnel shortage when a new power unit is planned to be constructed at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. There is not enough money for the maintenance of the government’s Airbus A-319-112 either, where BGN 2.485 million are needed.

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24 Chasa’s front-page article reads that Bulgarians are living on borrowed money: BGN 4.8 billion in loans have been taken in 10 months. This year broke the record: the money Bulgarians managed to save is by BGN 100 million less than what they took from the banks. The data also show that Bulgarians most often take a loan of up to BGN 20,000, which they use to buy a car or repair their homes.

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Duma reports that essential oil producers and processors want an act or a national strategy on essential oil crops, because though there is an act on the oil-bearing rose, Bulgaria lacks a legislative regulation on the many other essential oil crops grown here. According to the Distilled in Bulgaria Association, an act on the matter will bring the sector into the light and improve the products’ quality. At present, producers agree on the terms with distilleries on their own. A legislative regulation would determine the varieties that should be grown in Bulgaria’s various regions to produce oil that has qualities complying with the state standard. Nikolay Nenchev, a producer from Distilled in Bulgaria, said that there are around ten essential oils produced in Bulgaria apart from rose oil, and this branch has been developing very actively because of the existing demand.