site.btaMedia Review: December 14

ECONOMY – ENERGY 

Capital: Over BGN 2 billion is the amount that the Belgian Avesta Battery & Energy Engineering (ABEE) plans to invest in a large-scale project for the production of batteries for electric vehicles in Bulgaria. The company's intentions are to build a gigafactory, a recycling plant and an R&D centre in three locations - Stara Zagora, Burgas and Plovdiv, respectively, thus completing the circle.

If the plans come to fruition, which is expected to happen in the next 3 to 5 years, this will be the largest single industrial investment in the country. That is why the government has committed to provide the maximum allowable state aid for the project, which has been identified as strategic. The only uncertainty is that it is not coming from a top global manufacturer in the sector, but from a young Belgian company that has only recently made a similar giant bid in Romania. 

The company was founded in 2019 by Noshin Omar, an engineer by education, with a PhD in energy storage systems, a scientist with extensive research and a former university professor. The company specializes in the development of battery and energy technologies for the automotive industry and other applications.

There are no figures for its turnover in 2022, but a check of international registers shows that its net profit is around EUR 2 million. Its assets are growing, exceeding EUR 25 million as of the end of last year. The company employs about 20 people, so for now the focus seems to be on development, while according to its website, production is more boutique-like, with 10,000 units made annually. 

However, the company's expansion is likely imminent. In May, ABEE announced that it had signed a key agreement to build a battery management systems (BMS) plant in North Macedonia, where the investment will be in the order of EUR 40 million.

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Mediapool: At the end of the outgoing year, the cabinet of Nikolay Denkov allocated some BGN 72 million for the Easter supplements to the pensions of the elderly paid in April. It turns out that the caretaker government of Galab Donev, nominated by President Rumen Radev, voted to approve the bonuses, but did not provide funds for their payment. The allowances are taken from the budget of the National Social Security Institute.

The Council of Ministers adopted on Wednesday an additional transfer under the state social insurance budget for 2023 in the amount of BGN 72 000 000. "The financial resource will reimburse expenses already incurred for the payment of additional amounts to pensions for the month of April," the government press service said.

The required funds will be provided through restructuring of expenditure and/or transfers under the central-government budget for 2023, it added. 

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Bulgargaz has proposed to the energy regulator that the price of natural gas be reduced by nearly 8% in January next year and be sold at about BGN 81 per MWh, excluding fees and taxes.  

The price is formed on the basis of the quantities under the long-term contract with Azerbaijan, LNG deliveries, and fuel extraction from the gas storage in Chiren.

The proposal is to be discussed at the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission. By 1 January it will be updated by Bulgargaz and after a decision of the regulator it will come into force.

POLITICS – HOME SCENE 

NOVA TV quotes Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov as saying during a key meeting of EU leaders in Brussels that Bulgaria's strategy to join Schengen is to negotiate land borders.   

"We have prepared proposals.  We will send them to Austria and we will also use the European Commission (EC) as a mediator in these negotiations. Preliminary talks have already taken place. I was able to talk to (EC President Ursula) von der Leyen, (Romanian President) Klaus Iohannis and (Austrian Chancellor) Karl Nehammer. All are willing to continue the negotiations", the Prime Minister explained.

"We do not want to remain hostage to decisions that have nothing to do with the logic of EU development. We will try to avoid the need to re-enter a European Council decision that requires unanimity," Denkov clarified.

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"None of the goals of the assemblage [a term used to refer to the ruling parties, consisting of GERB, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms) have been met. To recall that they were all about Schengen - you see what happens. There is no clear prospect for the eurozone either. It is clear that the second tranche of the Recovery and Resilience Plan will not come in by the end of this year. Judicial reform, which has so far been reduced to merely replacing the Prosecutor General, the Constitution and nothing more, has been stalling. So none of the big wishes they had are being implemented, which makes the existence of this assemblage meaningless," Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Korneliya Ninova told bTV Wednesday. 

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Economy and Indsutry Minister Bogdan Bogdanov told bTV that he has demanded the resignations of the Commission for Consumer Protection's (CCP) leadership. 

"In recent months we have started to receive many complaints from the CCP - from businesses, from sacked employees, which are over 60 within a few months," Bogdanov said.

Representatives of the CCP didn't even show up for a hearing in front of MPs in Parliament, he added. 

"Yesterday I had a meeting with the leadership of the Commission, there isn't even communication between them. I have withdrawn my confidence from them and have asked for the resignations of the leadership. I hope that as soon as possible we will create a new team that will work in a completely different way and restore the image of this important institution for Bulgaria," the Minister said.

He commented that the Commission had taken a very clear stance towards a protein bar manufacturer in a competition between two companies. On the one hand, there was a crackdown on the retailers selling the products, and on the other hand, there was overstepping powers when it came to exercising control over the product's contents. This was done mainly with the involvement of the chairman of the CPC, Bogdanov said.

SOVIET ARMY MONUMENT

The media continue reporting on the dismantling of the Soviet Army Monument in central Sofia. Trud quotes national radio as saying that the head of the main statue, depicting a Russian soldier whose raised arm holding a machine gun was the first thing to be cut off, has been removed as well. Checkpoints have been set up around the monument. Pedestrian traffic is restricted and there is police presence. 

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Bulgarian National TV: MPs from Vazrazhdane, BSP for Bulgaria and There Is Such a People (TISP) blocked the parliamentary rostrum and said they would not allow Parliament to work.  

Vazrazhdane and the Socialists are claiming that the Constitutional majority in Parliament, consisting of GERB-UDF, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, have  permitted lawlessness in the center of Sofia with the removal of the Soviet Army Monument. TISP, on the other hand, claimed that the constitutional amendments are illegal.

BULGARIAN CHILDREN – ADOPTION ABROAD 

24 Chasa quotes Justice Minister Atanas Slavov as saying in Parliament that a total of 681 Bulgarian children have found a new homes abroad in the last 3 years. Slavov presented a report in response to a question by MP Tsvetan Predov from There Is Such a People. The data are for the period from January 1, 2020 until December 1, 2023.  

Bulgarian children have been adopted in 16 countries in Europe and North America. The largest number of children found a new family in the USA - 351, followed by Italy with 147 adoptions. A total of 53 and 45 children went to Canada and Spain, respectively. 

The youngest child adopted abroad is 1 year old and the oldest - 16 years old.

Adoptive parents take several children at the same time - brothers and sisters. 

For example, in August 2020, two boys and two girls between the ages of 6 and 13 who were related, found a new family in the United States.  

In some cases, the children adopted abroad have serious illnesses, mental retardation or congenital disorders, such as microcephaly, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, behavioural disorders. 

Interestingly, the highest number of adoptions were allowed in the pandemic year 2020 when the world was in a lockdown. The reason is most likely that the procedure takes time. In international adoption, the rules and procedures differ than those for domestic adoption.

However, the permission is issued personally by the Minister of Justice and a register of all cases is kept at the Ministry. 

Among the requirements for prospective foreign adoptive parents are for them to be married or single, but it is not advisable for them to be just living together. 

Where the adoptive parents are spouses, the younger of the spouses must have a difference of not less than 15 years with the child and not more than 50 years, and the elder not more than 55 years.

It is necessary that they are not deprived of parental rights. They must be in good mental and physical health and not have been diagnosed with tuberculosis, AIDS/HIV, venereal disease or any disease that is dangerous to themselves or the adopted child. 

Their economic status must correspond to the average for the country in which they live.