site.btaMedia Review: January 2

MINIMUM WAGE

Mediapool: The monthly minimum wage in Bulgaria went up by 15% on January 1, reaching BGN 1,077. Until now, the minimum wage in the country was BGN 933.

Around 430,000 people work for minimum wage, but the figures cannot be considered particularly accurate because of the huge size of the informal economy in Bulgaria.

According to most studies, the grey economy in Bulgaria is between 30%-33%, which points to large-scale tax and social security evasion.

The increase in the minimum wage is BGN 144, and there has been huge opposition to this from employers' organisations, despite the clear legal texts.

According to the Labour Code, the minimum wage is set at 50 per cent of the average gross wage for a 12-month period that includes the last two quarters of the previous year and the first two quarters of the current year.

From January 1, 2025, the minimum contributory income for self-employed persons shall also be increased from BGN 933 to BGN 1 077. The maximum contributory income is also increased from BGN 3,750 to BGN 4,130.

The government defends the increase in the minimum wage by the need to reducing the grey economy and the risk of poverty among the lowest earners, to preserve their living standards and to reduce inequalities in income distribution.

The net income of minimum wage employees will increase and will reach BGN 835 after payment of taxes and social security contributions. Despite the increase, Bulgaria remains the country with the lowest minimum wage in the EU.

NATURAL GAS

In the early hours of January 1, Russian gas supplies through Ukraine stopped after the transit agreement between the two countries expired following Moscow's full-scale invasion. The pipeline was one of the last two routes still carrying Russian gas to Europe nearly three years after the full-scale war. The second is through Turkiye and Bulgaria via Turkish Stream - leaving the two countries as the only route for Russian piped gas. By cutting off supplies through Ukraine, EU countries would lose about 5% of their gas imports in mid-winter.

While traders have long expected supplies via this route to stop through Ukraine, this will affect Europe's gas balance at a time when heating demand is high. Slovakia is the most affected country.

“While one would assume that losing those volumes [is] priced in, a strong upward price response initially isn’t out of the question,” said Aldo Spanjer, senior commodities strategist at BNP Paribas, quoted by the Financial Times.

The deal to allow Russian gas to pass through Ukraine was agreed at the end of 2019, signed a day before the previous 10-year contract between the national gas companies was set to expire. At the time, the European Commission strongly promoted the deal. After Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, however, the commission encouraged member states to seek alternative supplies as the bloc moved to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel imports. The Moscow-friendly governments of Hungary and Slovakia have resisted that shift and have sought to extend the deal beyond January 1.

In the new situation, Russian gas could start flowing through Bulgaria to Hungary and Slovakia, Capital writes. But for now it is difficult to say what the real gains for Bulgaria would be, because so far this country has shown that it often concludes gas deals that are unfavourable for it - this was the case with Turkish Stream itself, as well as the contract with the Turkish gas operator Botas.

At the end of December, Martin Vladimirov, an energy expert at the Center for the Study of Democracy, explained to Capital: 'We are talking about 500 million euros in fees to the Slovak gas operator SPP from the transit of Russian gas through the country. The problem, according to the expert, is that the company has an alternative to import spot-price (more expensive) liquefied natural gas reversibly via the Czech Republic, as Bulgaria has to do in the spring of 2022."

Martin Vladimirov also predicts that after the shutdown of Russian gas through Ukraine, an attempt will be made to push the entire transit through Bulgaria. If Bulgaria becomes a gas transit hub for the new Russian volumes, this will mean more revenue from transit fees. But judging by those for Turkish Stream, which equate to 0.6 euros per MWh - 5-10 times below the levels in the region, the country may not gain that much. Even with the record volumes imported in 2024, Bulgaria is unlikely to receive more than BGN 400 million a year.

FIREWORKS – DEAD BIRDS

Mediapool: Nearly 600 songbirds of protected species have died due to the stress caused by the New Year fireworks in Koprivshtitsa (West Bulgaria), reports the nature conservation organization Green Balkans.

A total of 606 mountain finches were admitted to the organisation's wildlife rescue centre, with 591 dead. According to veterinarians, the autopsy showed death caused by stress, as massive haemorrhages in the abdominal cavity and on the skulls of the birds were observed.

The report of the disaster was filed on January 1 by citizens who noticed the multitude of dead birds near Koprivshtitsa. The Green Balkans team on the spot established the scale of the mortality, and the organization suggests that the number of dead birds is higher because 606 is the number of mountain finches that managed to collect before sunset.

"All of them - victims of the New Year's "war in the streets", in this case in Koprivshtitsa, but who knows in how many other places in the country the picture is the same," the organization wrote.

VAPING INCIDENT – PLEVEN

The media widely cover an incident in the northern city of Pleven, where a 14-year-old fell from the seventh storey of a building after vaping with friends.

A child died after falling from an apartment building block in Pleven on the evening of January 1, bTV reported. 

According to initial reports, the boy was 14 years old. 

According to Vladimir Nikolov, Pleven's district prosecutor, the boy who died had been smoking a vape with other 14-year-olds and had gotton sick. According to unofficial information, the vape contained a liquid similar to cannabis.

An expert examination appointed by the prosecution will show exactly what the substance was, Nikolov said. 

The child fell from a window on the 7th floor of the space between the apartments.

NOVA TV: After smoking, the 14-year-old boy told the rest of the group that he felt unwell and started to walk down the stairs.  On the 7th floor there was an open window through which he fell. He died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

The investigation continues with interviews of the children who were present at the tragic incident, their parents and teachers.

HEALTH

In Europe, cases of seasonal flu are on the rise.  Influenza A predominates. About 70% of these influenza A cases are of the 2009 pandemic swine flu, Prof. Todor Kantardzhiev, former director of the National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, told Bulgarian National Radio.

There has not yet been a sharp increase in cases of influenza and acute respiratory diseases, he said, commenting the situation in the country. In the coming weeks, he said, influenza is expected to manifest itself most in students and the active population.

Kantardzhiev recalled that the peak of influenza in Bulgaria is most often at the end of January.

There are about three and a half times fewer cases of COVID compared to the same period last year, said Prof. Kantardzhiev. According to him, the number of cases of influenza grows in autumn and in the beginning of spring.