site.btaVarna Mayor Accuses European Prosecutor of Political Bias in Construction Project Investigation

The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) confirmed on Friday that it had opened an investigation into a construction project in Varna in 2021, based on an initial report by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

www.dnevnik.bg identified the project as the Karantinata fishing port in the Asparuhovo Quarter on Varna's southern outskirts.

At an expressly organized news briefing earlier in the day, Varna Mayor Ivan Portnih accused European Prosecutor Teodora Georgieva of "political manipulation and a brutal active measure," referring to a notorious subversive technique used by the KGB.

Portnih argued that Georgieva was suspected of having meddled in the investigation without any legal basis because European Delegated Prosecutor Mihaela Raydovska was in charge of the investigation and has been conducting it.

The Mayor, who has been elected as a candidate of the GERB Party, asked whether, as media report, Georgieva is linked to political circles and persons who are opponents to GERB.

Portnih also called into question the appointment of Yoan Karaterziyan as an expert witness to carry out a technical expert examination in the pre-trial proceedings. He argued that Karaterziyan, a Green Movement activist and member of Democratic Bulgaria, had expressed his negative view of the project even before the port went under construction. The Mayor blamed the expert for the overdue commissioning of the port as groundless alerts submitted by him entailed a huge number of all sorts of checks.

The Mayor suspects that he may be presently charged or arrested on an EPPO warrant.

Reacting to Portnih's press conference, the EPPO said in a statement that "it does not comment on statements made by political representatives in relation to our investigations." "Whenever we can say something about any of our investigations, we will do so proactively," it added.

The EPPO explained that "three European Prosecutors from a different Member State assess and validate any proposal by a European Delegated Prosecutor to take a decision in a given case."

EU Grant Obtained on Misleading Application? 

In its investigative report, www.dnevnik.bg recalls that in 2017 Varna Municipality applied for a BGN 8 million grant for the modernization and reconstruction of the Karantinata fishing port under the EU Maritime and Fisheries Programme 2014-2020. The co-funding measure was limited to infrastructure improvements of existing fishing ports, but no such port or any other had ever existed in the Karantinata locality. The only man-made structure at that narrow and wild beach until then was a metal catwalk protruding 30 m into the sea.

Documents were produced, however, showing that the port had "emerged" in late 2016, several months before the project application left for Brussels. The port was entered in the relevant registers on December 14, 2016, immediately before the submission of the project proposal for EU funding. Sources of www.dnevnik said that the application files included photographs of the non-existent facility showing pontoons assembled as floating berths.

The port went under construction on May 21, 2019, several months before the mayoral elections at which Portnih was elected for a second term. 

Approached by www.dnevnik.bg back in July 2021, the Transport Ministry said that the Karantinata fishing port would be able to accommodate just 43 vessels instead of the 116 under its construction project because it lacked the mandatory anchorages and water, electricity and internet supply facilities, as well as the requisite bollards for boat mooring.