site.btaMedia Review: January 29

Wind farms in the Black Sea, the January 19 election of two Constitutional Court judges on Parliament's quota and the confrontation between the institutions are some of the main topics in Monday's news media.

ENERGY

The Bulgarian National Television (BNT) had a discussion on a new Renewable Energy in Maritime Spaces Bill, which was adopted on first reading last week. Energy expert Martin Vladimirov from the Center for the Study of Democracy and Institute for Analysis and Assessment in Tourism Director Rumen Draganov talked about the construction of a wind farm in the Black Sea, its impact on tourism and the wind power potential of the sea. Vladimirov said the Black Sea has a smaller potential than the North Sea or the Caspian Sea, but it is still huge: according to the Center's calculations in 2021, it could be 116 gigawatts for the entire Black Sea area. The foundations of wind turbines create a reef effect and each of them can support up to 4 tonnes of mussels, which in turn attract large shoals of fish, the energy expert said.

For his part, Prof Draganov argued that the cultural segment of the ecosystem would be affected: "It will be destroyed, the view is the cultural segment."

Vladimirov countered that the turbines would not be built close to the shore. He added that all stakeholders would be invited to express their views at a roundtable in Parliament on February 6.

Meanwhile, fishermen in the northern Black Sea area expressed concern that the fishing areas in which they operate would be restricted and they would lose their livelihood. Also, the Bulgaria Chamber of Shipping released a position in Varna on Monday saying that the development of offshore wind farms should not be at the expense of fisheries.

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Interviewed by 24 Chasa, Energy Minister Rumen Radev says he hopes that Unit 7 of the Kozloduy NPP using the Westinghouse AP1000 technology will be launched into commercial operation at the end of 2034. The cost of its electricity is expected to be below EUR 70 per MWh, which is a rough estimate because the long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste must also be factored in. Meanwhile, an environmental impact assessment for Unit 8 is under preparation. That unit will go on stream two or three years after Unit 7. Radev says expectations are that by the end of July 2025, the Phase I engineering services will be completed, the technical design of the nuclear island and the safety analyses will be available and obtaining a construction permit for Unit 7 will come next. He hopes that by then, Bulgaria will have finalized negotiations on external financing. The aim is to proceed with the final investment decision by the end of August 2025. Commenting on a draft Bulgaria-US nuclear cooperation agreement approved by the government earlier in January, Radev says he hopes it will be signed in February. The document envisages the acquisition of nuclear power generation technologies, radioactive waste treatment and storage, and education programmes. Other topics in the interview include the possible sale to Ukraine of Bulgaria's equipment for the Belene NPP project, a recently signed agreement with Romania and Greece on a common platform for wind energy in the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea, the future of coal mining regions, and green energy.

ELECTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JUDGES: COMMENTS

Former Parliament leader Iva Miteva commented on bTV on the election of Desilsava Atanasova and Borislav Belazelkov as Constitutional Court judges. Miteva said she was aware of Atanasova's organizational qualities in GERB, but was concerned about her legal qualifications. As to Belazelkov, he was nominated in 2015 and was not backed by the legal professionals, so in her view, it was unacceptable to have him elected on Parliament's quota. The judiciary has its own quota of judges in the Constitutional Court, and hence the President's and Parliament's nominees should not come from the judiciary, said Miteva. She also strongly criticized the amendments to the Constitution adopted in late December, saying that there is nothing correct about them, "except the provision that science, education and culture are national values - whatever that means". In her view, the amendments fail to distinguish between the National Assembly's duration and the term of its powers. Miteva also mentioned the revisions concerning caretaker cabinets, asking which law will regulate them. She said the new provisions on caretaker cabinets were debatable, or even unconstitutional.

Interviewed by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), legal expert Ivan Bregov from the Institute for Market Economics said: "The Constitutional Court looks like a graveyard for veteran politicians." The election of the two judges ought to have implemented the new provision of Article 91 of the Constitution, which requires the National Assembly to observe the principles of openness, transparency, publicity and justification in the election of members of state bodies in order to guarantee their independence. The majority in Parliament, which adopted this provision, failed to observe it a month later, said Bregov. If the reformist circles had a clear position on why they are in power, they would oppose both Movement for Rights Freedoms (MRF) floor leader Delyan Peevski and GERB leader and floor leader Boyko Borissov and would maintain an opposition stance, although they are in office. The expert said: "I do not see a leadership which can put up an opposition, and I do not see internal opposition voices in those parties. This shows their leaders are totalitarian."

POLITICS

The BNT interviewed social and political analysts about the latest escalation of tension between the institutions. Sociologist Evelina Slavkova from Research Center Trend said Delyan Peevski spearheaded the conflict with President Rumen Radev, which she compared to the confrontation between Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and Radev in May and June 2023.

Prof Alexander Malinov, a political analyst, said Peevski is fighting to win the trust of the MRF members, which was "eroded recently by his hyperactivity". Malinov opined that after Peevski was placed at the top, it became apparent that he lacks the qualities to be the Movement's leader. This accounts for his demotion from a candidate for the MRF leadership to a candidate for joint leadership with Dzhevdet Chakarov.

Sociologist Yuriy Aslanov said it was odd that Peevski spearheaded the fight against corruption. Aslanov said the institutions were in a precarious situation, given the cabinet's rotation in March, the insecurity about the Sofia Municipal Council and even about the Mayor's position after the court ordered a probe into the tally sheets of all 1,639 voting sections in Sofia (which must be completed by mid-March), and the extremely low public confidence in Parliament and the government. The analyst concluded that the state administration has probably stopped functioning.

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Trud learned from MPs from the CC-DB coalition that DB are unhappy with CC's nomination of Nikola Minchev, without consultations, as the top-of-the-list candidate for the European Parliament elections. CC and DB are holding talks on having a joint list. Things can get more complicated by March 30 when the CC is holding its annual meeting. Radan Kanev, who is the only Democratic Bulgaria MEP now, is fifth on the list of candidates. He said recently that what matters is that CC and DB should run together. Kanev won a seat in Brussels due to preference voting, outstripping top-of-the-list candidate Stefan Tafrov, and could do the same again, the daily says.

SOFIA'S GOVERNANCE

After seven failed attempts to elect a chairperson of the Sofia Municipal Council, Mayor Vassil Terziev said in a bTV interview on Sunday that the largest group of councillors, CC-DB and Save Sofia, can work with the second largest, GERB, on two conditions: first, they must take responsibility for the failures of their governance [of the capital]; second, they must show a genuine desire for change.

FINANCE

Mediapool.bg quotes Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev as saying on the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) on Sunday that the bank is considering possible measures to restrict consumer loans, such as a cap on the maximum loan size or a limit on the debt-to-income ratio. Any steps will be preceded by an analysis of the first-quarter data in 2024. A decision to tighten household credit supply would also depend on Bulgaria's partners in the discussion of euro area membership, Radev said. The central bank announced recently that housing loans grew by 20.5% in 2023 on year as banks lent BGN 5.3 billion, bringing household debt to BGN 38.4 billion at the end of the year. Financial experts warn that high lending growth could push up inflation as was the case in 2007-2008.

Nova TV interviewed experts about housing loans. Credit consultant Tihomir Toshev said the number of mortgage loans decreased by 2% in 2023 and the 20% growth in their volume was due to the price increase. He also said 50% of transactions on the real estate market were paid in cash but the last 18 months had seen a decrease. Financial expert Lyubomir Datsov said interest rates changed very little last year, while the volume of mortgage loans spiked. "If the central bank implements measures, it would be normal to see an increase in housing loan interest rates," he said.

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Trud quotes BNB data showing that expats contributed a record high EUR 1.32 billion to the Bulgarian economy in 2023 through bank transfers, fintech companies or 10-minute money transfer service. This is nearly 25% more than in 2022 and nearly EUR 120 million more than in the pre-pandemic 2019. Bulgarians transferred EUR 4.17 million a day on average. The real amount is even larger because some 25% of the money is received in cash and is not included in the official statistics.

HEALTH

Trud frontpages the news that the Medical Universities of Sofia and Plovdiv have launched a Bulgarian Genome study, which is expected to contribute to better prevention and research into rare diseases, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases and even infectious diseases. The study will help understand the Bulgarians' risk of developing genetic diseases, the effectiveness of and resistance to drugs. The project has been piloted with a representative sample of 400 people in Sofia and Plovdiv. The first stage of the study will involve 1,000 healthy adults. This is part of a large-scale European project in which each country will present a reference genome. The sample of 400 people is the minimum standard even for countries like the US and Canada, a scientist who asked not to be named because he is not directly involved in the project told the daily.

Prof Iva Hristova, Director of the National Institute for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, said on BNT that Sofia Region has the highest flu incidence. The numbers are rising rapidly, meaning that the peak of the flu epidemic is close.

SOCIETY

Sculptor Vezhdi Rashidov, a long-time MP of GERB and a former Parliament chairman, comments in Trud on the dismantling of monuments. He argues that the great Bulgarian artists are not to blame either for socialism or for democracy gone wrong. The Museum of Socialist Art, established in 2011 when Rashidov was culture minister, was designed to preserve the works of some of the most talented Bulgarian artists, as is the case with the Soviet Army Monument, he says. The sculptor criticizes both the government for abdicating and leaving "anarchically minded people" to run the country, and the Union of Bulgarian Artists for failing to take a stand on the dismantling of monuments.