site.btaMedia Review: January 3

POLITICS

Transport Minister Georgi Gvozdeikov told BNT that he expects Bulgaria to be fully accepted into Schengen by the end of the year. In his words, for all this to happen, there will be constant checks by the most critical countries in the free space.

At the end of last year, it was announced that Bulgaria and Romania would join Schengen, but only by air and water. This will happen in March, and throughout the year, negotiations will take place to drop the restrictions by land.

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bTV summarizes the five tasks before Bulgaria if it wants Austria to unblock its full Schengen membership:

Reinforcing border controls with Turkiye and Serbia, including European funds for border reinforcement and technical support.

Reinforcing land border controls between Bulgaria and Romania, and between Romania and Hungary (i.e. additional border controls will be needed before Bulgaria is admitted by land).

Return to the territory of Bulgaria and Romania of refugees who have entered the EU through both countries (this is part of the Dublin agreements, which have been in force for 10 years and apply to all member states, not just Bulgaria. The first country through which refugees enter is obliged to take them back and deal with sending them back to their places of origin, for example).

Possible unexpected checks at Austrian airports on travellers from Bulgaria and Romania.

Overview of the state of Schengen this year.

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Commenting on the five conditions that Austria set to let Bulgaria and Romania join Schengen, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Nadezhda Neynsky told bTV that 2024 is starting with good news, not as big a step forward as we would have liked, but a step nonetheless.

"For me the conditions are not a surprise. Strengthening the borders with Serbia and Turkiye are necessary for us as an EU member state," Neynsky said. 

This year is full of elections in European and non-European countries.  The Bulgarian government must be extremely prepared. In order to have a successful foreign policy, it must have a good domestic policy, she added.

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The Dublin agreement (the Dublin III Regulation ensures quick access to the asylum procedures and the examination of an application on the merits by a single, clearly determined EU country) is ineffective, according to Mariana Tosheva, Chair of the Refugee Agency, who spoke in the studio of BNT.

“The number of refugees who have passed through the country and reached Austria is about 6,000. The figure is indicative of the so-called persons who have passed through Bulgaria, applied for asylum and in the framework of a procedure have left the country and arrived in Austria. These persons are conditionally subject to return under the current Dublin regulation,” Tosheva said.

The Dublin system does not work successfully, especially under migration pressure. Migration is like water. These people are in open centres and controlling them is difficult, she added.

According to her, 590 persons were returned to Bulgaria in 2023. "The return procedures include identification of the persons, notification, preparation for return. Austria has to identify them and put them on the plane to return them to Bulgaria," she added.

Austria wants to highlight the number of refugee returns. That is why it has given this figure. But this is a procedure that could take a year or two, Tosheva said.

She stressed that the overall occupancy rate of refugee centres in Bulgaria is 72%. "Two of them are 104% full. 

There are many unaccompanied minors. There are about 370 children in the centre. The other filled centre is in Sofia’s neighbourhood Vrazhdebna," the Refugee Agency chair said.

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24 Chasa runs an interview with Trend polling agency co-founder, political analyst Dimitar Ganev. Highlights:

The news about Bulgaria’s partial Schengen membership is a breath of fresh air for the government, but it needs more good news to give the "non-partners" (the ruling majority, aka “the assemblage”) an argument to justify the support they get. There is no doubt which is more important to voters if free air travel and refugee admission to Schengen are put on the scales. The ruling majority is also united by the fear that if it comes to early elections, a new party may steal the show. There are quite a few topics that will cause serious tensions between the partners before the government rotation in March, according to Ganev.

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The first government meeting of the year started with praise to Finance Minister Assen Vassilev for the deficit of 2.2% of GDP achieved last year. Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov urged not to believe in words, but to assess by "deeds and real results, because only they matter"

"This is almost a percentage below the budgeted 3% and three times below the apocalyptic 6 to 7% that the public has been scared of for months. Congratulations to the Minister of Finance and his team," Denkov said, and added that BGN 1.2 billion will be directed to municipalities.

"These are funds that everyone will be able to feel, depending on how they will be used in the respective municipality. We will continue to work for results that change Bulgaria for the better. It will take more time for everyone to feel them in their daily lives, but we are on the right track and I believe people are starting to see it."

The meeting’s agenda includes amendments to the Small and Medium Enterprises Act, amendments to the regulation on anti-doping activities in sport, as well as amendments to the regulation on the type, amount and procedure for imposing penalties for environmental pollution and non-compliance with the set emission norms and limits.

ECONOMY

BNR reports that imports of Polish wine are up 6,000% year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food's Annual Agricultural Report 2023. There has also been a serious increase in the amount of Romanian wine entering Bulgaria.

In just one year, the amount of wine produced in Poland and entering this country has jumped from 900 litres to over 54,000 litres, the figures show. Thus, the growth in a year is 60 times, the statistics office calculates. The situation is similar for Romanian wine, of which 228,000 litres have been imported, an increase of 1,280%.

Despite this growth, the total wine imports for the last year amounted to 13,064,000 litres, which is 10% below the previous year's level.

However, exports are also down. Nearly 17 million litres of wine were exported by Bulgarian producers, which is more than 20% less than the previous year, according to data in the Annual Agricultural Report. Interestingly, the largest quantities - nearly 7 million litres - of exported wine from Bulgaria were directed to Poland.

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According to Nova TV, Bulgaria is an absolute world leader in the production of duck liver, brake hoses, and herbs. However, this does not mean that Bulgaria also earns the most from them. In terms of which goods bring the most profit, the ranking looks different. These are unrefined honey, crude sunflower oil, and oilseed sunflower. With these commodities, Bulgaria occupies fourth and third place in world exports. It is oils, and especially sunflower oil, that are the new golden Bulgarian commodity, with exports of over USD 1 billion. The oil goes mainly to India, Spain, and South Africa. As far as sunflowers are concerned, according to Eurostat, nearly a quarter of the production in the entire European Union comes from Bulgaria, making this country the largest producer in the community.

MISCELLANEOUS

A total of eleven judges of the District Court in Stara Zagora have recused themselves from the case of violence against 18-year-old Debora Mihaylova and refuse to hear it, Sega reports in a publication on the subject.

The indictment against Georgi Georgiev was filed in court on December 15, and the magistrates who are to hear it are determined by random draw. However, they are recusing themselves one after another and so the trial has not yet been finally allocated and it is not known when it will start on the merits.

Among the judges who have recused themselves is the president of the district court in the town, Blaga Bozova. All eleven magistrates who have so far refused to deal with the case have referred to the text of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which says that "no judge or juror who, due to other circumstances, may be considered biased or interested directly or indirectly in the outcome of the case may participate in the composition of the court," Sega further reported.

If all the magistrates of the court recuse themselves, the Supreme Court of Cassation will have to decide which other court the case should be sent to, usually choosing a nearby court at the same level so as not to cause further inconvenience to the participants in the trial.

On July 28, an 18-year-old girl from Stara Zagora had her arms, legs and chest slashed, her nose broken and her hair cut with a hair clipper. She was saved using 400 stitches. The alleged perpetrator was her 26-year-old boyfriend, who was detained for 72 hours and then released. 

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Trud reports that Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Sebastian Korda of the USA qualified for the quarterfinals of the doubles tennis tournament in Brisbane after eliminating Harri Heliovaara (Finland) and John Peers (Australia) 4:6, 6:3, 10:3. The Bulgarian and the American will play against Britain's Lloyd Glasspool and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands, seeded No. 2, in their next match.

Dimitrov will also play his second round singles match Thursday morning against Daniel Altmaier (Germany).