site.btaMedia Review: December 29

BULGARIA -SCHENGEN

The partial lifting of the Austrian veto on the two countries and their admission to the free travel space from March 31, 2024, was first announced by Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu late on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday morning it was confirmed by Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, although until late in the evening Vienna's commitment remained verbal. 

According to 24 Chasa sources, the government in Vienna will delay its official decision until December 30, although the initial indication was that the decision would be confirmed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives in Brussels as early as December 29. Late on Thursday evening, the Austrian Interior Ministry issued a statement saying that the negotiations were continuing and there was no confirmation of a political agreement in the statement. 

Later in the evening, after a working meeting with parliamentary foreign committee chair Boyko Borissov, Denkov clarified that the negotiations with Austria were continuing. Bulgaria has made a concession from its initial position that Austria should agree in advance on a date for admission to Schengen with land borders, Denkov further explained. He, however, dismissed speculations in Romania that with the new Schengen negotiations Romania could separate from Bulgaria and become a full member before Bulgaria.  
  
"So far, no date has been specified for the land borders, neither with Romania, nor with Austria, nor in the negotiations with the European Commission. What Austria has committed to is that the negotiations should continue. In no way in our talks there has been any idea or discussion of dividing Bulgaria and Romania", he said.  
  
Sofia negotiated until the last minute to try and not split Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen in two stages. According to sources in Brussels, Schengen by land is not currently being discussed on at all. And Bulgaria’s admission by water and air, with no specific date set for land borders, could prove to be more of a problem than progress for Bulgaria as the queues that holds back the business are at the land borders. However, negotiations will likely take place throughout 2024, and the earliest possible date for accession seems to be 2025. 

Bulgaria's partial entry into Schengen has been hailed as both a historic success by the government and a failure by the opposition.  It actually facilitates Bulgarian business worth at least BGN 40 billion a year. Because almost 75% of Bulgarian goods are transported by sea to Western Europe, 90% of those to Southern Europe and about 30% of exports to Greece. Our main trading partners are Germany, Romania, Italy, Greece, France and Spain. The abolition of border controls will mean less costs for businesses and faster movement of goods. Which will contribute to the economic growth. Bulgaria's full admission to Schengen will facilitate exports to the whole EU, which are worth nearly BGN 70 billion annually. 
 
The losses in crossing the Romanian border alone are BGN 120-150 million per year. When Bulgaria and Romania enter Schengen with their land borders, Bulgarian carriers will save an average of 15 hours per trip to Western Europe.  
  
According to Economy Minister Bogdan Bogdanov, Bulgaria loses between 3 and 5% of its GDP by being outside Schengen, which means between BGN 5 and 8 billion per year.  

***

Capital Daily reports that at the last moment Austria has hardened its position on the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen by air. The reason was that the governments of Romania and Bulgaria had rushed to announce the agreement reached before the procedure in Vienna was finalized. This necessitated an urgent meeting on Thursday afternoon between parliamentary foreign affairs committee chairman Boyko Borissov, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Gabriel, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov and Finance Minister Asen Vassilev. After all, Austria's final decision is expected in a few days whether it will allow Bulgaria to at least part of the Schengen passport-free area in March next year. 
 
In a NOVA News interview former deputy foreign minister Milen Keremedchiev said that it is not clear how by 2025 Bulgaria will get Austria to change its decision on Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen by land.  
"The phased entry into Schengen is not unprecedented. Austria itself acceded the area in two stages and Slovakia is the latest example. In both countries, the period between the stages was very short - about 3-4 months. I don't see by 2025 how we could reverse public opinion and attitudes in Austria to change its mind," Keremedchiev said. In his words, regarding land borders, there are several conditions for Bulgaria’s entry into the Schengen area. One of them is the construction of a solid fence between Bulgaria and Turkey and Romania and Moldova, where serious pressure is expected due to migrants.

***

"Romania was hasty in talking about an upcoming Schengen deal. This is very harmful in diplomacy, especially on issues with domestic political overtones", former diplomat Stefan Tafrov said on the morning show of Nova TV. 
 
“In Austria the topic is hypersensitive. Leaking information does not help the work. Any discussions on the topic are premature", he added with regards to the news announced by Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov that the Austrian side has agreed to let Bulgaria into Schengen by air and water in March 2024.  
  
The news was broken first before by the Romanian prime minister, and at the end of the day it turned out that Austria did not confirm it with a laconic announcement that the negotiations are currently continuing.   
  
In Tafrov's words, it is too early for fanfares, but there should be optimism about Schengen. 
 
"Bulgaria protects well the external borders of the EU and is has every right to join Schengen. Austria's requests are in the direction of strengthening the EC's support to Bulgaria on the border with Turkey. So they coincide with ours," said.   

***

Trud.bg quotes Yavor Serafimov, head of the anti-organized crime directorate as saying in a televized interview that human trafficking across Bulgaria's borders has halved since the middle of the year. This resulted in the latest positive report of the European Commission on Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen.  
  
"There is no border in the world that cannot be overcome. The Bulgaria-Turkey land border is the second busiest in the whole world and the first in Europe. By 2025 it will be the busiest border in the world," Serafimov said.  
  
At the beginning of the year, officials reported a 50% in migrants compared to last year. There have been days with 1,500 detained migrants, but the trend broke in September. 
 
“Turkey is making great efforts to prevent migrants from entering Bulgaria. We have very good communication with our Turkish colleagues through a trilateral centre, through which information is exchanged every day. We have given a lot of arguments to the politicians to be able to defend Bulgaria's position on Schengen’s accession", Serafimov said.  
  
The outflow is now expected because it is no longer easy to overcome the internal part of our country.  
  
"There are established checkpoints at several key points. In the interior of the country, a number of operational searches are carried out by various means to our western border with Serbia or Romania," Serafimov said.  
  
Currently, the channels for human trafficking are routed through Greece and North Macedonia. 
 

Capital Daily reports that at the last moment Austria has hardened its position on the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen by air. The reason was that the governments of Romania and Bulgaria had rushed to announce the agreement reached before the procedure in Vienna was finalized. This necessitated an urgent meeting on Thursday afternoon between parliamentary foreign affairs committee chairman Boyko Borissov, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Gabriel, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov and Finance Minister Asen Vassilev. After all, Austria's final decision is expected in a few days whether it will allow Bulgaria to at least part of the Schengen passport-free area in March next year. 
 
In a NOVA News interview former deputy foreign minister Milen Keremedchiev said that it is not clear how by 2025 Bulgaria will get Austria to change its decision on Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen by land. 
  
"The phased entry into Schengen is not unprecedented. Austria itself acceded the area in two stages and Slovakia is the latest example. In both countries, the period between the stages was very short - about 3-4 months. I don't see by 2025 how we could reverse public opinion and attitudes in Austria to change its mind," Keremedchiev said.  
  
In his words, regarding land borders, there are several conditions for Bulgaria’s entry into the Schengen area. One of them is the construction of a solid fence between Bulgaria and Turkey and Romania and Moldova, where serious pressure is expected due to migrants. 
 
 ECONOMY 
 
24 Chasa writes that in order to stop VAT fraud, the National Revenue Agency will be monitoring over 500 goods of high fiscal risk. The list includes most foods such as meat, milk, bread, chocolate, as well as fuels and oils. If consignments are worth over BGN 5,000, or weigh over 500 kg and are transported in an over 3.5-tonne vehicle they have to be reported in advance to the National Revenue Agency. Tax officials will issue a unique code for the consignment, which will be given to the driver. If upon inspection the number is not provided or there is a discrepancy with the kind of goods, the consignment will be seized and the haulier may be fined with up to BGN 1,500, The code contains information about the sender, deliverer, recipient, haulier, the transportation vehicle, the kind and the worth of the goods, the estimated time of arrival, as well as loading, unloading and reloading.  
  
The early reporting of the transportation of the goods is part of measures to improve tax collection and stop VAT fraud. Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said that by mid-year tax revenues increased by 15% against 6% for VAT tax. As a result, NRA tightened controls mainly on foods and fast–moving consumer goods. Consequently, the VAT collection reached 98.4% of the projections. This led to the new rules for control over goods of high fiscal risk. Hungary and Romania have already enforced similar rules. However, the business wants a trial period. 
 
Sega.bg writes that one in seven Bulgarians lives in rented accommodation, citing Eurostat figures on EU’s housing stock for 2022. Ten years ago, 96% of Bulgarians owned their own homes and only 4% were renters. But tangible changes have quickly taken place and now 85% live in their own (family) flat or house and 15% use other people's homes.  
  
In 2012-2013 Bulgaria was on a par with Romania in the ranking of own homes - first and second place, while now Bulgaria is only in seventh place, and Romania holds the first place with 95% of the population living in their own home. Ahead of Bulgaria are all countries from the former socialist bloc: Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland. 

By comparison, in Germany, over 53 per cent of the population lives in rented accommodation, and in Switzerland this percentage is even higher - almost 58 per cent. On average across the EU, 69% of people own their home and 31% are renters, according to Eurostat.

Experts point to a number of factors for the decline of owner-occupiers in the country - economic and demographic. For example, the rise in property prices is having an impact, which is preventing many people from owning their own home. Others, especially younger people who change jobs frequently and travel a lot, prefer not to anchor themselves with a home purchase. Others, who are solvent enough, calculate that it is better to pay a monthly rent than to rush to buy an expensive property and enslave themselves with large mortgage loans. 

Also, paradoxically Bulgaria is among the countries in the EU with many empty houses and apartments and at the same time with a high share of overcrowded housing.   
 

INTERVIEW 
 
Interviewed by TrudNews, Deputy Parliament Speaker Rossitsa Kirova said that the rotation in the government will happen. “I think it will happen under clear rules that will be drawn up in the next two months. And it will only happen for one reason - Bulgaria needs the horizon that this government gives. We must not fall back into the spiral of yet another election that reproduces the same result. Bulgaria does not need new elections. The National Assembly is an absolute mirror of Bulgarian society at the moment. We need to educate ourselves more, to learn to be more tolerant, more demanding of ourselves first.” 
  
Asked about a possible rotation of ministers, Kirova says that it is not out of the question, because it may turn out that there are ministers around whom there is a very clear consensus that they should be replaced, as well as those around whom there is a clear consensus that they should not be replaced. Deputy Foreign Minister Gabriel will certainly want to shape her government in some way. 

VOTING MACHINES HASH CODE 
  
After a query by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) to the prosecution service, it has emerged that a probe into illegal access to the hash codes of the voting machines, which were banned in the first round of the local elections, has turned into pre-trial proceedings. No charges have been pressed yet and an investigator from the cybercrime department is working on the case.  
  
Two days before the first round of the local vote, it became clear from an unclassified State Agency for National Security (SANS) report, of which the National Assembly Speaker briefed the leaders of the parliamentary groups, that the Deputy Minister of e-government Mihail Stoynov had taken pictures with his phone of the hash codes of the voting machines.

The ban on machine voting led to protests on the day of reflection and an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court. The court returned the machines for the ballot, and immediately afterwards the prosecution launched a preliminary investigation into unauthorized access to the voting machines.

"All the circumstances that are mentioned in the SANS reports on the voting machines are being investigated. Computers have been searched, the voting machines on which the codes were generated have been seized," Deputy Prosecutor General Maria Pavlova said at the time and announced a series of interrogations of all officials of the institutions involved in the certification of the machines.   
Based on what they found, the inspection has turned into pre-trial proceedings. 

The scandal with Mihail Stoynov developed in parallel with allegations of pressure on the Minister of e-government Alexander Yolovsky. According to him, he was threatened by MPs Kiril Petkov and Bozhidar Bozhanov to conclude public contracts with certain companies. A report about this to the state prosecution was filed by "There Is Such a People". 

The prosecution promptly initiated pre-trial proceedings for a crime in office, and security was assigned to Yolovsky and his family. There are no new developments, the prosecution told BNR.  
 
HEALTH 
 
Dnevnik reports that Bulgaria has the highest overall mortality rate among European Union countries, according to the Annual Report on the State of Citizens' Health. An excerpt was distributed by the press office of the Council of Ministers. The full text has not yet been published and the data is for 2022. The information on the mortality rate in Bulgaria shows that, although it decreased last year compared to 2021 (to 18.4% from 21.7%), its level is still significantly above the union average of 11.5%.   

According to the report, the leading causes of death in Bulgaria are diseases of the circulatory organs (59.8%) and neoplasms (13.7%). According to information from the Council of Ministers, in 2022 for the first time in recent years an increase in malignant neoplasms has been reported: to 405.8 people per 100,000 population in 2022, with 393.3 people per 100,000 in 2021, 399.3 people in 2020 and 434.9 people in 2019. 
COVID-19, which in 2021 was the second most common cause of high mortality in the country, in 2022 ranks third (7.6%). Last year, 9,000 people died in the country with coronavirus, compared to nearly 27,000 the year before.  

The infant mortality rate in Bulgaria is also higher (4.8%) than the European Union average (3.2%). Fertility figures continue to show a decline, with the number of live births falling by 2,082 compared to 2021, the report added.