site.btaMedia Review: December 21

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

The constitutional amendments adopted on third reading on December 20 dominate the media on Thursday. 

In an interview for the Bulgarian National Television, National Assembly Deputy Chair Nikola Minchev (Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria) said that the amendments will ensure that for the first time there is real judicial self-government. “They are part of our objectives - to ensure the independence of the Bulgarian court, which is guaranteed through judicial self-government in a way that the National Assembly, through its parliamentary quota, only exerts a controlling influence, but not a managerial influence in the management of judicial affairs. The constitutional amendments have achieved this objective. The other objective is to make the Prosecution Office autonomous but also accountable, because up to now this has been lacking. This objective was also achieved," he stated.

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On Nova TV's morning show, presidential defence secretary Dimitar Stoyanov commented on the constitutional amendments regarding the caretaker cabinets. Stoyanov was caretaker defence minister in two caretaker governments appointed by President Radev in 2022 and 2023. According to the amendments, the head of State will no longer have full discretion in appointing a caretaker prime minister. His or her choice will be limited to the chair of the National Assembly, the president of the Supreme Court of Cassation, the governor or a deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, the president or a vice president of the Bulgarian National Audit Office, and the National Ombudsman or a deputy ombudsman. "There is a restriction to select specific persons from a list. Why is the the National Assembly Chair there but not the deputy chairs? The answer is very clear and simple – to prevent the opposition from entering the governance of the country through a caretaker government. The aim of the government is to encapsulate itself and rule for a long, long time," Stoyanov argued.

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Duma presents BSP for Bulgaria's stance on the amendments. "The deep state have dug in even deeper", the daily quotes Socialist leader Korneliya Ninova as saying.

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Trud quotes an interview with MEP Petar Vitanov for Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). Vitanov chaired the initiative committee to hold a referendum in support of keeping March 3 (Liberation Day) as Bulgaria's national holiday. The idea of changing the date of the national holiday to May 24 (Day of Slavic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture) was rejected by the MPs on second reading of the constitutional amendments.  "There are some red lines that the ruling coalition tested whether it could cross – it failed with this one," Vitanov said. "We have signatures from every regional town, representatives of GERB and Movement for Rights and Freedoms helped us on the ground," he stressed, commenting on the referendum on the issue.

SOFIA’S AIR POLLUTION

Sofia’s air quality is another topic covered across several media outlets on Tuesday. 

Telegraph writes that the levels of fine particulate matter in the atmosphere are elevated. Stations in 11 cities across the country are reporting air pollution.  The concentration of dust in Sofia is between two and three times above the acceptable, the daily notes and points out that according to the European index the air quality in the capital is "very poor".

24 Chasa features an interview with city councillors from the three largest political formations in Sofia’s City Council on the same issue. "There are three factors that lead to this situation: the basin nature of Sofia, fogs, inversion and low atmospheric pressure and our behaviour that we pollute with," said GERB's Lorita Radeva. She explained that from 2019 there is no increase in the annual average standard and from 2021, 4 out of 5 stations in Sofia have shown no exceedance in pollution levels for more than 35 days per year. According to her, the measures applied so far are bearing fruit. GERB's Yordanka Fandakova was Sofia Mayor from November 2009 to November 2023 - the longest serving at the position. GERB leader Boyko Borissov was Sofia Mayor from 2005 to 2009. "Mrs Radeva mentioned a political will that we have not seen in the last 18 years," said Conitnue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria - Save Sofia's Plamena Terziradeva. According to her, the municipality's mechanism for dealing with polluted air was not implemented well and the values set inside are too high. "We need to talk a lot more about street washing because the issue is fine particulate matter. Cars and fumes are only the fifth most polluting factor of the capital," said BSP's Enyo Savov. He pointed to the burning of waste, including tyres, as another problem.

bTV showed an interview with Tanya Assenova, the head of the Environmental Control and Protection Department at the Sofia Inspectorate. "Our colleagues from the mobile group have made more than 450 inspections in 20 days for burning and for other sites that are potential sources of pollution, and we have 7 acts for burning waste alone. The penalty is quite high under the Waste Management Act for an individual. It's BGN 5,000, so anyone who is issued with a ticket - they're looking at a minimum fine of BGN 2,000," she explained. People noted that the penalties do not help and the authorities need to think in another direction, bTV added.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS

In an interview with BNR, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov said that four police officers were fired for their actions during the November 16 riots in Sofia, when football fans protested against the Bulgarian Football Union. "In parallel, by order of the director of the Sofia Directorate of the Interior, disciplinary checks are currently being carried out on nine police officers for 10 breaches of official discipline. There is a strong possibility that some of these disciplinary inspections will escalate into disciplinary proceedings, where the most severe penalties are envisaged, namely dismissal," he added. The November 16 protests started as a peaceful rally against the football union leadership but went violent, leading to clashes between football hooligans and police. Multiple videos published on the social media showed police officers using unnecessary force against random people and members of the press.

ECONOMY

In a Nova TV interview, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria MP Martin Dimitrov, member of the parliamentary Budget Committee, commented on Eurostat data, which show that in terms of income growth Bulgaria ranks second in the European Union after Croatia. "There are positive signs of improvement of the economic situation in the country. Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria is at a record high this year compared to the last 10-12 years. This reinvestment means that the companies that are here are investing their profits in our country because they obviously expect positive developments related to Schengen, the eurozone and stable governance," he said. In his words, over the last 12 years Bulgaria has been catching up with the European standard by an average of 1% per year. "In Romania, this indicator is twice as high," he noted. Dimitrov pointed out that if the trend of the last two years is maintained, for the first time Bulgaria will double its rate of catching up with the average European income. "If we manage to keep the trend until the end of 2024, we may not be last in the ranking of individual consumption of citizens. In the worst scenario, that could happen in 2025," he predicted. At the end of the year, in ten days, the deficit will be below 3%, he said on the 2024 State Budget. This shows that the situation is under control, Dimitrov stressed.

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Telegraph features an extensive interview with Bulgarian Food Safety Agency's Laboratory Control Directorate Director Lyubka Lazarova. "Trucks with pesticide products from third countries stop at Kaptain Andreevo border crossing every day. If it is not the biggest land checkpoint of the EU, it is one of the biggest," she is quoted as saying. Lazarova notes that new product groups with pesticides often arrive from Asian countries, giving the example of dragon fruit, which has an increased use of such substances. “Bulgaria is an external border and we must be prepared for any such product to be sampled and tested before it reaches the EU interior,” she states.

EDUCATION

Trud has an interview with University of National and World Economy Rector Dimitar Dimitrov on the state of Bulgarian higher education and the obstacles to the introduction of new modern specialties in universities. "If we set out to create such a specialty for artificial intelligence, which is super-modern and has been applied for a year now, we will not be able to, because the filling of available places for such specialties at national level is below 70%," he points out.