site.btaMedia Review: January 22

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24 Chasa runs a two-page interview with Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov, who says that following several cases of excessive use of force, he had ordered monthly training courses for both order-taking and order-giving police officers on handling risk situations: extracting persons from cars, detention, pursuit and other critical situations. "This process is essential and even though it used to be delayed and neglected, it has to be brought to the fore," Stoyanov argues. He describes Bulgaria's Schengen accession for air and water border controls as "a hard-won but deserved victory" for the country, with substantial benefits for Bulgarian citizens and businesses, an extraordinary step forward in our comprehensive EU integration and a success for the Bulgarian Government." "We proved that Bulgaria can protect both its own borders and the borders of united Europe," the Minister says. He quotes a Border Police analysis according to which 30 to 40 illegal crossings of Bulgaria's border with Turkey are prevented daily at this point, down from some 200 last year. The electronic speeding tickets in 2023 increased by nearly half a million from the previous year, from 1,154,2023 to 1,565,833. The new traffic offence notification system by SMS, email or Viber resulted in BGN 11 million-plus in fines paid in October 2023, up by BGN 2.5 million from October 2022, Stoyanov says. He also reports a decrease in the number of drunk and drugged drivers detected last year without relaxing the checks.  

MIGRATION

On a full inside page, Trud interviews Bulgarian Member of the European Parliament Elena Yoncheva, who explains Austria's insistence on Bulgaria accepting back illegal migrants. The MEP details the key points of the Dublin Regulation and the new EU Migration Pact which will supersede Dublin. Yoncheva says that the European Parliament's negotiators group for the Pact, which she heads, has succeeded in defending the interests of first-line countries and above all of Bulgaria. The essence of the relocation and the solidarity mechanism is to redistribute illegal migrants from Bulgaria and the other countries under pressure so as to ease the burden, the MEP says. Asked whether Bulgaria's Schengen entry for air and sea borders was a success, Yoncheva says that the tightened controls at the Bulgarian-Romanian border is in contrast with the total lack of controls which is the purpose of Schengen. 

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT CONTROVERSY

On Bulgarian National Radio on Monday morning, Assoc. Prof. Natalia Kiselova commented on the election of two new Constitutional Court judges of Parliament's quota: Desislava Atanasova and Borislav Belazelkov and the possible complications that this entails. She explained that the election is effective as from January 19, when the legislature passed its resolution, and thus predates the January 20 effective date of a Constitutional Court interpretative decision ruling that the newly elected judges must serve for seven years rather than nine, as fixed by the National Assembly resolution. The expert argued that Atanasova may not be sworn in as Constitutional Court member before being released as member of Parliament. In her opinion, the new judges were elected for the remainder of the term after which the complement of the Court will have to be renewed, i.e. for seven years, because the interpretative decision was issued before their taking office by being sworn in, which is due to take place on January 26. 

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www.dnevnik.bg quotes its own sources in the Administration of the President as saying that Rumen Radev will hardly block the election of the two new Constitutional Court judges because their nominations are backed by the leaders of the ruling majority and there is no strong public pressure to keep them away from office. Legal experts told dnevnik that there are no legal options to contest or reverse the election and the only way to frustrate its finalization is for the President or some of the rest (the National Assembly Chair and the presidents of the two supreme courts) to walk out of the swearing-in ceremony, but this will hardly happen. Moreover, the National Assembly Chair may reciprocate by boycotting the assumption of office of the successors to Filip Dimitrov and Mariana Karagyozova of the presidential quota, whose terms expire at the end of 2024. Two more members of the court are due to vacate office at that time: Konstantin Penchev (of the parliamentary quota) and Tanya Raykovska (of the supreme courts' quota).

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"Atanasova replaced another GERB MP in the Constitutional Court. Her nomination shows that GERB have not learnt a lesson from their errors. Again, they put forward a person closely linked with the party, while Continue the Change demonstrate a different type of attitude to these nominations," Iskren Mitev MP of Continue the Change said in the Monday morning show of Nova Television.

SOCIALIST PARTY

Interviewed on Bulgarian National Television Monday morning, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Executive Bureau member Kristian Vigenin said that his party is in a better condition due to its relatively better performance in the 2023 local elections, which motivates it and inspired optimism about the forthcoming European elections and the election of a new party leadership this coming autumn. "The critical voices are just as many, but we meet them more united," he said, describing intra-party criticism as "well-intentioned" rather than divisive and internally disruptive. The BSP insists that the best professionals rather than political figures should be elected to the regulatory authorities and that their complements should not be allocated among party quotas. "This approach [party quotas] is completely unacceptable and endangers the interests of the European Union," Vigenin argued.

UKRAINIAN REFUGEES

The validity of the registration cards of Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria will be extended by one year until March 4, 2025, www.segabg.com reports, referring to a draft decision that has been submitted to public consultation. The new validity triggers a re-registration, but temporary protection beneficiaries will be able to request extension of the validity even after the final date. The draft decision transposes a common EU decision on extension of the temporary protection period that was adopted at the end of 2023. According to the latest up-to-date figures, 65,000 Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria hold valid registration cards. They will have to request an extension of their cards at the registration and reception centres of the State Agency for Refugees and the regional directorates of the Ministry of Interior.

ECONOMY

Economist Rumen Galabinov told Telegraph in a two-page interview that Croatia's experience has allayed fears that the adoption of the euro will spur on inflation. He argues that Bulgarians are used to the euro, considering that the BGN/EUR exchange rate is fixed, real estate transactions are concluded in euro terms, and so are a large part of mortgages. If Bulgaria manages to bring down inflation even faster and demonstrate a will and a State policy, both the European Commission and the European Central Bank would take a more favourable view and would make the necessary compromise even if Bulgaria does not meet the macroeconomic criteria, and inflation in particular, and would invite the country to join the eurozone as from January 1, 2025, the interviewee says. He recalls that the admission of any country to the eurozone has been largely a political decision, adding that other countries, which even now are part of the eurozone, have other macroeconomic indicators, such as the debt/GDP ratio, that are worse than Bulgaria's. According to Galabinov, a Schengen entry for land border controls before the end of 2024 will definitely contribute to Bulgaria's economic growth in the trade and tourism sectors, and this will be tangibly felt at once. The economist notes that in addition to State-decreed minimum-wage and pension rises, incomes should also grow as a result of improved productivity and more investments in the economy. He does not think it is a good idea that incomes in the State administration should dramatically outpace the rise of incomes in the real economy.

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Assoc. Prof. Grigor Sariiski of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences says in a two-page interview for Trud that, after more than 30 years' transition, Bulgaria has neither a free market nor State regulation. Asked about Croatia's eurozone entry despite failing to meet the inflation criterion, the interviewee says: "The very fact that when you apply you have to meet standards in order to join a community where they, as a rule, are not complied with, sounds odd, to put it mildly." Sariiski does not think that all sorts of future compromises, including with the forthcoming convergence assessment of Bulgaria, will benefit any eurozone countries because they can perpetuate the residual imbalances in the insufficiently ready economies. In the case of Croatia, the compromise resulted in an immediate shock and an introduction of State-regulated prices, which breached fundamental market economy principles, the economist argues. Replying to a question, he lists three reasons for the persistently high inflation in Bulgaria: the limited local production of finished products and a high degree of dependence on imports, a considerable business concentration in key segments, including retail trade, which makes it possible to use non-market practices and make excessive profits by puffing up prices, and lack of discretion in structuring fiscal incentives.

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In an analysis contributed to Trud, economist Dimitar Chobanov writes that the high inflation in Bulgaria and the EU since mid-2021 is due to a surge in the natural gas price, governments' consumption promotion programmes, which pushed up domestic demand without materially affecting supply, and the war in Ukraine and an aspiration of EU countries and especially Germany to reduce their dependence on Russian fossil fuel supplies. Local factors include the Government's policy for increase of wages and pensions at a rate outpacing inflation and maintaining high budget deficits. The expert cites official statistics, according to which the fastest price rises in 2023 affected foods and beverages, followed by restaurant and hotel services, entertainment and cultural activities, and healthcare. Despite being well-intentioned, the Government's "Affordable for You" initiative for keeping down the prices of staple foods apparently did not produce the desired result, Chobanov comments, mentioning the appreciation of meat and meat preparations, milk and dairy products, eggs and vegetables.

SOCIAL POLICY

Interviewed on Bulgarian National Radio, Labour and Social Policy Minister Ivanka Shalapatova said on Monday morning that she prioritizes investment in high-quality family care for children as an alternative to the inability of the real family to take such care. The interviewee said that before the end of 2024, the 188 children who are currently institutionalized will be reintegrated: they will be returned to friends and relatives or will be placed in foster care or in a family-type centre for intensive medical care. "We have prepared a much more modern policy for support of friends and family, of foster families and of the professional network surrounding the family," Shalapatova specified. She said further that a vision on human resource development in the social sphere for the 2024-2023 period that has been elaborated and is subject to public consultation targets increasing the attraction of the social worker profession, enhancing the level of their training and improving their working conditions, above all by a pay rise.
 
GREEN TRANSITION

Trud frontpages a report, according to which a new Electric Mobility Promotion Act, drafted by the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, provides for an increase of the tax on the oldest diesel-power cars by 78% and a new 'green fee' on the purchase of ICE vehicles. The idea is to make people give up older cars and switch to electric vehicles. "People drive old cars not because they prefer them but because they cannot afford newer ones. Even if the tax on the old cars is doubled or trebled, most people will still be unable to spend, say, BGN 50,000, on buying a new car," the daily comments. The story continues on two full inside pages. One sidebar says that the cheapest option of charging an electric vehicle is at home, where power costs BGN 0.22-0.23/kWh at the peak and BGN 0.13-0.14/kWh at the off-peak rate, which makes less than BGN 6 for a small electric vehicle. By comparison, charging the same care at a fast-charging point costs BGN 36, which makes the price of driving as high or even higher than of ICE cars.

NEXO SEEKS ARBITRATION AGAINST BULGARIAN INSTITUTIONS

The cryptocurrency trading platform Nexo is suing the Bulgarian Finance Ministry and the country's prosecution service for an unspecified compensation at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (an arbitration institution that is part of the World Bank Group) in Washington, D.C., Trud reports. In December 2023, prosecutors abandoned a yearlong investigation against the firm about money laundering, tax crimes and other offences for lack of evidence. One of the accused, Antoni Trenchev, said back when the probe was launched that the company will seek USD 1 billion in damages from the Bulgarian State for tarnished reputation. Telegraph also covers the story.

ROAD TOLLS

Duma reports that the European Commission has rejected Bulgaria's request to decrease road tolls by up to 50%. The Government promised this to protesting transport carriers last summer, but Brussels did not approve Sofia's intentions, Regional Development and Public Works Minister Andrey Tsekov told a parliamentary committee. His Ministry will now seek another option. He said that the losses that Bulgarian carriers have sustained as a result of the war in Ukraine are being analyzed, so as to persuade the European Commission that the industry has to receive State aid.