site.btaMedia Review: December 22

The Friday media lack a single dominating issue and front-page stories can be found on a wide range of topics from politicians celebrating with cakes decorated with mock fragments of the Soviet Army Monument, to the rearmament of the Bulgarian Armed Forces to a revolutionary locking system for home doors and the enforcement of speed limits.

HIGHLIGHTS

The Christmas issue of Capital Weekly is quite unusual, full of human-interest stories, with little to no politics and macroeconomics. It is for “stories about the streets, life, work, the Net and free time”, to use the editors’ words. The stories it tells include: 

• one about a Bulgarian project for the Venice Architecture Biennial which shows abandoned schools in rural Bulgaria as a symbol of the demographic crisis. The result of the project is that the young architects explore the opportunities for bringing back to life the abandoned schools and deserted villages;
• about the plans for a Sofia for the people (not for the cars), which have long been in the making but were then shelved due to a lack of will in the local authorities to set in place restrictions for cars;
• one about Ivan Ivanov a Bulgarian architect who emigrated to Australia in the mid-20th century and made a name there for his signature designs but is totally unknown in his home country;
• about how a fund-raiser helped build Romania’s children cancer hospital;
• about a letter from Bulgarin-born artist Christo to his brother Anani, which is among the exhibits in an exhibition now on in Sofia;
• about the rent-a-baba project in which older people without a family are paired with young families who need an older person in their everyday life, and many more. 

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Trud leads with a story saying that drivers can’t be fined for speeding if they are caught on the cameras of the toll system because these cameras are not certified for the purpose. This transpired from an answer by Regional Development Minister Andrey Tsekov to a question by an MP from GERB. The toll system has 295 stationary and 55 mobile cameras. An experiment done this past autumn on Sofia’s Northern Speed Tangent for a brief period of two hours showed that one in four cars goes faster than the 120 kmph speed limit. In an interview on the matter, MP hristo Terziiski (GERB-UDF), who is a former Interior Minister, says that the purpose of his question to the minister was to hear how far have they gone with the process of certifying the toll cameras to use them for registering traffic violations.

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Dnevnik.bg leads with an analysis about the pension system titled “The Government Is Facing the Ultimate Question: How to Shrink the Pensions Deficit”. It recalls a quote by the Vice President of the Podkrepa Labour Confederation, Dimiter Manolov, who is also chair of the Superviusory Board of the National Social Insurance Institute, and who said back in 2006 that 15 years from them one Bulgarian working person will pay the pensions of two pensioners. The forecast has not yet come a reality but Bulgaria is very close to it, and it has nothing to do with how small or big the pensions are – and they are generally low but are nonetheless bigger than the established formula requires them to be. This is the reason why a number of economists say that the National Social Insurance Institute is used for the social policy, which distorts the social insurance model. In the years since the current insurance system was first introduced, it has neither been updated nor substantially changed, mainly out of political fear. During the debate on the 2024 social insurance budget bill, the question was raised again that this could no longer continue, and the Social Ministry announced that it was starting to analyze the system, the story says.

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A front-page story in 24 Chasa says that the Bulgarian Armed Forces will be rearmed with new assault rifles after a fast procurement deal in late 2023. According to the story, “the Bulgarian version of the popular Kalashnikov will have a laser aiming system and a grenade launcher”. It will be produced by Arsenal in Kazanlak. 
The paper has more stories on the rearmament of the Bulgarian Armed Forces.

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24 Chasa also has a front-page story about the decision of Bulgarian National Television director Emil Koshlukov to take down a popular culture programme with host Peter Stoyanovich. The paper has an interview with Stoyanovich on an inside page, where he tells of censorship in the national television. The BNT director would not comment the situation.

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Telegraph leads with a story about a new type of a lock system that can make the front door of a home practically impenetrable.

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In Duma, the front-page story is about the Socialists demanding the resignation of politicians from Democratic Bulgaria and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (which are now part of the CC-DB coalition) for celebrating with a cake decorated with mock fragments of the Soviet Army Monument in central Sofia, which was recently dismantled. The story is titled “Barbarians Feast over Monuments”. The paper also has an editorial on the matter.  

POLITICS

On Bulgarian National Television (BNT), social and political analysts Andrey Raychev, Harlan Alexandrov and Svetoslav Malinov commented the political highlights of the outgoing year: the constitutional revisions, the judicial reforms, Bulgaria’s Schengen bid, the state budget, the useful moved for the power-holders, the upcoming rotation in the government.
A signed commentary on the front page of Trud slams the newly adopted constitutional changes as harmful for the country and blasts the three groups in Parliament that backed them: CC-DB, GERB-UDF and MRF, especially for their glee after the revisions were pushed through. Of GERB leader Boyko Borissov, the author says that he was “more reserved and aware that the glee was excessive, the benefits limited and only for the narrow circle of leaders of the three parties, and the weaknesses visible and harmful”.

On bTV, Atanas Atanassov MP of CC-DB, said that as CC-DB and GERB-UDF are about to rotate in the government (whereby GERB will get the Prime Minister’s office and the option to change ministers), the issue of giving ministerial offices to the MRF has not been discussed and their have not claimed any positions in the government either. “The government lineup will be proposed by Mariya Gabriel together with Nikolay Denkov. First we will assess the performance of all ministers. Personalities have not been discussed yet [as potential cabinet members after the rotation], said Atanassov. He said that he could become a minister, if necessary, but the option has not been considered. Atanassov is a former Interior Ministry chief secretary and former head of the National Security Service. 

He also said that it is unacceptable to have a deal for dividing the top positions in the regulators threeways (between GERB-UDF, CC-DB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms) and that these positions should be filled by professionals. This is the position of CC-DB and it was reconfirmed during talks on December 21, said the MP.

SCHENGEN ENLARGEMENT

The Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) and BNT reported that the Dutch Parliament has just upheld the government decision to give a green light to the Schengen enlargement into Bulgaria and Romania. Some MPs proposed that the Netherlands should join the Austrian position in favour of accession for air/sea border first and then for land border, but the proposal was rejected.

Dnevnik.bg writes that Schengen accession in two steps emerges as the prevailing approach. “Bulgaria is working for an option in which membership in the European border-free area would happen in two steps. After the Dutch government announced that it is lifting its veto on Bulgaria’s entry, this approach looks increasingly practical in the efforts to persuade Austria to follow suit. In this approach, Bulgaria will first enter Schengen for air/sea travel and, once clearly defined criteria have been met, for land travel as well. The first phase could take place sometime in the second half of March 2024. The talks are dynamic and are being conducted not only with Vienna and not only by the Bulgarian government, but through all possible channels, including with the help of political ‘families’ in the European Parliament and personal contacts with leaders,” the paper writes.

On bTV, the head of the Bulgarian Border Police Anton Zlatanov said that Austria’s arguments against Bulgaria’s entry in Schengen seem “purely political”. “I have not heard a single professional argument. All professional criteria have long been met,” he said. The demand that all illegal aliens who are caught in Austria and who are found to have crossed Bulgaria, should be sent back to Bulgaria, is the position of one MP, he said. “This is a political statement. We have regulations to follow and at the moment we follow all regulations, including the Dublin Agreement: when we catch illegal migrants, we accept them, we register all who are arrested in our territory. This year alone they total over 16,000,” Zlatanov said. He believes that, thanks to the fine-tuning done, border control is much better now and the peak of crossing attempts (1,500 per day) is now in the past. He underscored the improved cooperation with Turkiye. He said it is impossible to catch all who try to sneak into Bulgaria but the vast majority of those who do are caught inside the country or at the exit.

24 Chasa reports a project of MEP Andrey Novakov who got on a truck to travel Europe and find out how long it takes Bulgarian truck drivers to cross Europe’s borders while this country is being kept out of Schengen. The headline is “Bulgarian MEP: Out of Schengen, a Bulgarian Truck Loses between EUR 10 and 240 Each Day”. 

Telegraph also has the story about the European journey of the Bulgarian member of the European Parliament.

ECONOMY

As the energy and water regulator is about to endorse new prices for water as of January 1, 2024, the Bulgarian National Radio has an interview with the chair of the Union of Water Companies in Bulgaria and CEO of the Vratsa water company, Angel Prestoyski. It has already become clear that a significant increase by an average of 15% will be approved for water prices in most of the country, Prestoyski says that the increase will “merely adjust prices to inflation in the sector”. He points out that water services is the only sector where prices are set by a law to be affordable for all social groups. He also says that when prices go up, the collection of bills usually suffers at first but then things get normalize.

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In a Trud interview, the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Tsanko Bachiiski, says that the Westinghouse nuclear fuel will be licensed for use in Bulgaria in March. He is an advocate of nuclear energy. “We have all prerequisites and experience to develop further nuclear energy,” he says and goes on to hail the decision of Parliament to go ahead with the construction of two new units at the Kozloduy N-plant, Unit 7 and 8.

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Duma has a full-page interview with economist Grigor Sariiski where he slams the upcoming euro changeover and says that “in its present shape the euro is nothing more than a poorly implemented interesting project”. He argues that the Bulgarian economy has lost momentum. 

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On the Bulgarian National Television, Boyko Sinapov of the Association of livestock breeders in Bulgaria, complained of lack of support from the government, said that many farms are on the brink of survival and threatened farmers’ protest in early 2024. Later in the morning programme of BNT, the deputy chair of the parliamentary agriculture committee Rossen Kosturkov said that “three-fourths of what Sinapov said does not correspond to the truth” and that support is regularly provided to farmers and that for 2024 is BGN 500 million bigger than in 2023, which he said is “a huge increase”. Kosturkov also said that “part of the problem is that people like Mr Sinapov fail to understand that this government stepped in office with the intention to ensure a fairer distribution of support in the agriculture sector – and will make sure these intentions become a reality.”   

HEALTH CARE

Telegraph reports that all medical documents in health care will be digitized in 2024. The story quotes the Health Ministry. That will give patients access to the full package of information about any medical treatment they have undergone, medicines that have been prescribed to them and tests that have been done to them. The national health information system is currently being expanded to include new segments: maternity health, child health and preventive care, says the story. 

ENVIRONMENT

Dnevnik quotes former environment minister and Green Movement member Borislav Sandov as saying that his party gave Environment Minister Julian Popov six months but “things are not happening at the Ministry and there are no reforms”. He also said that the Ministry gave up two major projects for over 300 million under the National Recovery Plan, and that was against the efforts to protect waters and biodiversity. There is no progress in the legislative process either, and Bulgaria is faced with 18 infringement proceedings after that number was briefly reduced to 10. Sandov says that Popov has a problem with over-confidence in the Ministry administration. In the best-case scenario, Bulgaria will get reduced funding for environment in the National Recovery Plan and in the worst-case scenario it will get no funding at all, writes Dnevnik.

CRIME

The papers and electronic media extensively report the arrest of a ship of Bulgarian shipping company Navibulgar in Ireland with 500 kg of cocaine on board. The Trud headline says “A Ship of Domuschiev Brothers caught with half-a-tonne of cocaine”. Navibulgar has been owned by Kiril and Georgi Domuschiev since 2008. On bTV and BNT, criminologists speculated on whether the crew of Verila were aware about the heroin on board.