site.btaMedia Review: January 7

HEADLINES

Not a single topic dominates print and online media on Tuesday. The morning programmes of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), bTV, and Nova TV feature discussions of the political situation in the country, economy, healthcare, among others. The frontpage topics in 24 Chasa and Duma cover the topic of regular government formation. Trud leads with a story on the cost of living in Sofia and Telegraph’s frontpage headline is about the registration of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria (OCOCB).

POLITICS

Duma’s front page headline reads that “[President Rumen] Radev provides parties with more time to negotiate [regular government formation]”. 24 Chasa writes that “Radev does not want new snap elections, nor a new Prosecutor General”. Trud has a headline reading that parties have ten more days to negotiate regular government formation. The morning programmes of BNT, bTV and Nova TV hosted discussions following GERB’s termination of government formation talks on Sunday.

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Mediapool.bg writes that with political analyst Parvan Simeonov there is still a chance for the formation of a regular government and "the negotiations are not over yet".  "Our politicians have recently given us enough reasons to make such reservations and to have unexpected expectations," he is quoted as saying in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio. Simeonov described the sudden termination of the negotiations by GERB, which happened with a message to the media on Sunday evening, as a "slightly theatrical gesture". In his words, with this move GERB leader Boyko Borissov aims to take a better negotiating position. The political scientist stressed that the information about the negotiations before their termination was that the negotiating groups had agreed on most of the topics, "including the judicial matters, which are the most sensitive".

ECONOMY

Interviewed by the Bulgarian National Radio, economist Georgy Ganev, program director of the Center for Liberal Strategies, commented on the draft budget, the VAT rate on bread and restaurant services, and Bulgaria's prospects for joining the eurozone. He said that Parliament was very likely to vote down the 2025 State Budget Bill submitted by the caretaker Cabinet, and that the latter would have to draw up a new one. "The Finance Ministry has competent enough people who can draft a much better budget," he said. Ganev argued that the revenue target is unfeasible, while the expenditures are unjustifiably inflated by billions, the biggest excess being in the salaries of the security sector. He commented that this budget was paving the way for new snap elections: instead of [parties] buying votes with their own funds, it seems that the services which are meant to watch out for election violations are being bought in front of everyone's eyes.

As to the zero VAT rate on bread and the 9% VAT on restaurant services, which were both restored to the 20% flat rate from January 1, the economist is adamant that there should be no going back. He recalled that when VAT on restaurant services was reduced, "we didn't see any frantic printing of new menus with lower prices". Restaurant owners simply pocketed the 11% margin, but "they are not entitled to such a privilege".

Regarding the eurozone, Ganev is optimistic as Bulgaria is making rapid progress towards meeting the criteria, but there is no option for this to happen in mid-2025.

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Trud writes that prices in Sofia are the same as in the Chinese city of Shanghai. The daily quotes numbeo.com and its calculated cost of living index for 2025. The ranking includes 327 cities from around the world, and Sofia ranks 195th, just behind Shanghai, with an almost identical average cost of living. New York City in the United States was chosen as the benchmark for the ranking, receiving a score of 100 on the cost of living index. All other cities are compared to New York, with an index above 100 indicating that living in that city is more expensive and below 100 indicating that it is cheaper. The index uses a fairly wide range of prices to determine the cost of living - not just basic grocery store prices, but also restaurant prices, daycare prices, movie theater prices, public transportation, housing prices, car prices, and utility bills. The value of the cost of living index in Sofia is 39.1, which means that living in Sofia is nearly 61% cheaper than in New York (not taking into account rent prices). Out of the 141 European cities participating in the ranking, Sofia is ranked exactly 100th. The city closest to it in terms of prices is Braga in Portugal, which is in 99th place, and right behind Sofia is Katowice in Poland. The ranking shows that prices in Sofia are higher than those in Budapest, Hungary (103rd among cities in Europe) and Bucharest, Romania (104th). Poland's capital Warsaw is much higher in the rankings, at 85th, with prices there averaging 42.7% of those in New York.

SCHENGEN TRAVEL

Nova TV and BNT have report in their morning programmes on whether young Bulgarians under 18 can travel within the Schengen area. Both reports consider the case of family lawyer Yordanka Bekirska and her 16-year-old son Todor. They bought plane tickets to Paris separately. At the airport, both mother and son pass through independent of one another, without any additional checks for the young man. Under the new rules, if one parent is taking the child out on their own, a declaration of permission from the other parent will not be required. If there is a reasonable presumption of a case of so-called "parental child abduction", the court may order a ban on leaving the territory of Bulgaria. "If there is such a situation, there is a court order and the parent finds out that there is still an attempt to take the child out of the territory of Bulgaria, he can alert the Border Police and then ad hoc, specifically for this case, a check will be made - whether it is an airport or a land border, " Bekirska told BNT.

HEALTHCARE

bTV reports on alerts of parents about poor conditions in a primary healthcare establishment in the capital. Visitors say that besides being cold, there are spider webs and mould. "The problems have been there for a decade. The Sofia Municipal Council (SMC) has taken a decision and will allocate money to fix the roof. This is the main problem," said Dr. Lachezar Yankulov, manager of the primary healthcare establishment in Sofia. Yankulov also explained why it is cold - the heating works just fine, but the windows are old and there is no insulation. "Money has been allocated for an energy audit to fix this problem as well," he noted. The funds, BGN 1.8 million for the repair of the roof, sanitary units and for the energy audit, were voted at the end of last year by the Sofia Municipal Council.

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National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) Head Stanimir Mihaylov says for Trud that the NHIF is being drained and so the money for health is never enough. According to him, for one year more than BGN 14 million was requested from the NHIF. One of the first things Mihaylov encountered when he returned to the NHIF was the accumulated over-limit activity amounting to BGN 104 million, he notes. Violations for more than BGN 500 000 have been detected in the regional health funds. In Sofia, Plovdiv and Blagoevgrad the most violations were found, the NHIF manager pointed out. He believes that information is leaking so when the hospitals will be inspected by NHIF inspectors, so the hospitals are cautious in their actions, Mihaylov says.