site.btaMedia Review: November 21

EUROPE

The European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, will be heard on Thursday by the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control as a candidate for a Bulgarian representative in the European Court of Auditors, Nova TV reports.

Ivanova's term in office as Commissioner ends with the election of the new European Commission. She was a GERB/EPP MEP (2009-2012) and the Bulgarian representative in the EU Court of Auditors from 2013 to 2023, and was then confirmed as Commissioner until the end of Mariya Gabriel's term.

The MEPs from the examination committee are expected to vote Thursday after the hearing of an hour and a half and in case of approval, a vote will be scheduled at the EP session in the last days of the month. Documents for the upcoming parliamentary committee meeting show Ivanova has already answered 19 written questions.

ARMED FORCES

Mediapool reports that the Bulgarian army plans to replace the legendary Soviet Makarov pistols with modern 9x19 mm guns.

For this purpose, an order for the purchase of new weapons has already been placed for a total of BGN 40 million. In addition to pistols, new snipers, machine guns and other weapons will be purchased. Thus, the small arms of the army will be seriously upgraded.

Commander of the Land Forces Major General Deyan Deshkov has already announced the replacement of the Makarov pistols in an interview with the newspaper "Bulgarian Army".

The Makarov is a semi-automatic pistol introduced into service in 1951. It was the main personal weapon of armed forces or security forces personnel in many former Warsaw Pact countries, as well as in China.

"Procedures have been initiated in the Defence Ministry on our request to replace the Makarov pistol. The procurement for several thousand 9x19 pistols should start now," Maj. Gen. Deshkov said.

In recent years, the army has also decided to upgrade the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, which will significantly improve the armed forces’ performance.

ECONOMY

Homes for sale in Bulgaria will now be viewable by buyers in over 50 countries, 24 Chasa reports.

Owners of expensive properties in Bulgaria, but also of works of art, jewellery, rare furniture and other luxury goods, now have access to the world-famous Christie's network. On Wednesday, the first luxury properties in this country - mostly houses - were launched on the Christie's International Real Estate website and can now be seen by the chain's users in more than 50 countries around the world, alongside super-luxury properties in Palm Beach, Florida, New York, the French Riviera and elsewhere.

The online posting was made possible after the managing partner of Bulgarian company Unique Estates, Vesela Ilieva, signed a partnership agreement with Christie's International Real Estate's managing director for Europe and Asia, Helena De Forton.

Christie's is a 258-year-old company which is better known in this country as an auction house selling works of art.

HEALTH

Trud runs an article about antibiotic resistance. Through the consumption of meats, animal products, fish and even honey, antibiotics penetrate the human body. This is one of the reasons for the overwhelming antibiotic resistance gripping the global population, conclude a number of studies. Reports show the presence of harmful ingredients in these foods in countries throughout the European Union. Regulatory authorities have also detected residues of hormone-releasing drugs, anabolic agents and antibiotics in the products listed.

Thus, when eating a steak or omelette, it is possible to ingest different amounts of antimicrobials that have been given to animals. And without drinking medications, just by eating some foods, we take antibiotics regularly in small doses, experts warn. "It is the regular intake of small doses of an antibiotic that leads us to adapt to it and so it stops working for us," Bogomil Nikolov from the Active Consumers Association told Trud News. He stressed that when animals become resistant, by consuming their meat, we humans also ingest such bacteria that are not susceptible to the antibiotic. He said that we should not rely only on the control authorities, but recommended changes in legislation that would generally restrict the sale of animal antimicrobials.

According to a study by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Trakia University, freezing food is not sufficient to ensure consumer safety when it concerns the presence of residues of antibiotics in carp and trout meat.

The study also points out that the potential risks to consumer health due to the presence of antibiotic residues in food and the environment have been discussed and demonstrated for years and are summarized in the following areas: Allergic reactions, acute and chronic toxic reactions, development of resistance, disruption of normal gut flora, alteration of taste and product quality, carcinogenicity, genotoxicity (damaging the human gene pool) and reproductive disorders.

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The youngest grandmother in this country is 28 years old from Burgas, according to Dr. Antonio Dushepeev, head of the maternity ward at the Burgas Hospital. According to him, if urgent measures are not taken to boost literacy of the population, this trend will not just remain, but will increase as time goes by.

"There is an increase in underage mothers. Children of 11, 12 and 13 are giving birth. We need urgent health education among minorities. Such pregnancies are extremely risky for both children - mother and baby," the doctor said in a Trud interview.

The Burgas Hospital delivered 149 babies of minor girls in 2023 alone. Among the young mothers was an 11-year-old girl.

According to Dr. Dushepeev, there is a huge probability that the child of a minor mother will, in turn, give birth at approximately the same age.

"It's about health education, sexual education, easy access to contraceptives, giving a different life perspective," he said, citing data showing that only 10% of pregnancies at this age are terminated by planned abortion.

"The tendency is for the child to be kept and raised by the minor’s parents – the baby’s grandparents. Underage mothers don't realize what is happening to their body. They almost never go for check-ups," said Zahari Atanasov, chairman of the National Network of Health Mediators, quoted by BNR.

In 2023, the average age for the birth of the first child in this country was 27 years, reaching up to 30 in the capital and down to 21 in smaller towns like Sliven.

STRONG WINDS

Strong winds of 120 km/h lashed the country late on Wednesday evening, causing serious damage and leaving people without electricity in places. Residents of the Vratsa villages of Bistrets, Gorno Peshchene, Tishevitsa and Veslets spent the night in the dark and cold, Thursday’s media report.

"Dozens of alerts of fallen branches and trees in the town, damaged facilities and broken overhead cables have been received by the municipality," the local authority said. Emergency crews worked through the night to repair the damage caused by the storm.

Plovdiv residents reported similar damage. In their case the strong wind came early in the morning. Cars and property were also damaged by the wind in the capital's Vitosha, Ovcha Kupel and Lyulin districts.

TAXI PROTEST

Following the protest of taxi drivers on Wednesday, most media report that the Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC) will meet Thursday to look into the pending price increase of civil liability insurance for taxis. The Commission has taken the matter into its own hands because of suspicions of a cartel in setting the price of insurance. The CPC says it is examining in detail all the circumstances surrounding the problems in this sector.

"The protest was successful. It achieved its goal, it showed where our problem is, our colleagues across the country joined in. The problem has been put on the table and we are waiting for a solution, remaining on protest alert. If there is no rapid development, we will protest again on a larger scale before the holidays," Krasimir Tsvetkov, president of the National Taxi Union, told BNT. 

DUI

The Sofia City Court will decide on Thursday whether to keep actor Dimo Alexiev under house arrest, Nova TV reports. Last week the district magistrates let him go home because he had a sick child.

Prosecutors say Alexiev should remain behind bars after he was arrested for drunk driving. This was the actor's second offence, after he received a suspended sentence in 2022.

The prosecution service protested a house arrest measure against the actor.

Alexiev himself said in the courtroom that he regrets what he has done and does not want to set such an example as a public figure.