site.btaMedia Review: March 31

EPPO PROBE AGAINST BULGARTRANSGAZ, SUSPENSION OF BULGARIAN EUROPEAN PROSECUTOR

Speaking on Bulgarian National Television, Vassil Pandov, MP of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, said: "We are currently witnessing the biggest corruption scandal in the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO). We have a threatened EU prosecutor who says that the Ministry of Interior is obstructing the investigation. A leader of a political party (Delyan Peevski) is named as being involved in the investigation, and the European Prosecutor's Office is launching an internal investigation into its investigation. This is an institutional scandal of European proportions.”

According to him, this is a test for the European public prosecution. Pandov said that the scandal with the expansion of the gas storage facility in Chiren is not new and Delyan Peevski's name has long been associated with it after a subcontractor reported that he was asked for a bribe and he was subsequently replaced.

EPPO confirmed last Friday that it has suspended its Bulgarian member Teodora Georgieva. On March 26, EPPO said that its College has decided to open an administrative enquiry into possible wrongdoing by the Bulgarian European Prosecutor in the framework of an ongoing EPPO investigation. Georgieva was suspended amid accusations of connections with a notorious fixer in the judiciary and in the wake of her recusal from a probe into a faulty project for expansion of Bulgaria’s Chiren gas storage facility over fears for her own safety.

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The scandal with the European Public Prosecutor's Office may affect Bulgaria's accession to the euro area, political analyst Daniel Smilov said on the morning programme of bTV. "The European Public Prosecutor's Office and its actions made clear something we all knew - that dependent people are appointed to senior positions in the Bulgarian prosecution service, and in the European Public Prosecutor's Office as well. Now this is put on paper, it is clear how the mechanism worked with Petyo 'Evroto' Petrov [a fixer in the judiciary]. What has happened since 2020? Except that Petrov was apparently tipped by someone and managed to escape before he was arrested and there is no development in the case, these kompromats exist and they continue to be used. This is the big problem, including for the stability of this government, because imagine a hypothetical scenario where the European prosecutor comes out and says: "We are not getting enough support from Bulgarian institutions in anti-corruption cases" or "There is no trust in who can do what". How will this reflect on the eurozone decision if it turns out that the state cannot cope with anti-corruption", Smilov said. According to him, the decision to suspend Bulgarian European prosecutor Teodora Georgieva was correct.

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Neither the Supreme Judicial Council nor the police can provide protection to a person from within who has decided to speak out against the system. People inside the system do not seek protection from the institutions but from the NGO sector or from politicians, said Ivan Bregov from the Institute for Market Economics on Bulgarian National Radio.

Teodora Georgieva can tell about the flaws in the system if someone provided her with protection, as "witnesses in Bulgaria are repressed, not protected", he believes.

"She can shake up the status quo and take the matter higher up to Brussels in her capacity as European prosecutor, and then maybe as a witness."

At the same time, however, he said that the European Public Prosecutor's Office itself is also a politically constituted body and, according to him, "we cannot place too much hope on Brussels to solve the problems with feudal lords in Bulgaria. It is possible that everything will be swept away.

POLITICS

MRF-DRF, the faction behind Ahmed Dogan, is ready to withdraw support for the cabinet, MPs from the party told TrudNews.bg. They said that a meeting of the Central Operative Bureau is scheduled for Tuesday, which will be attended by MPs from the parliamentary group, mayors and regional chairmen to decide the future of the formation and support for the government.

"We can no longer tolerate being humiliated, we are suffering negatives that we have done nothing to deserve," said an MP. He explained that their voters are unhappy with the situation in which the party is put - to support the government, and their nominations to be rejected without motives.

"We supported the government in order to dismantle the Peevski model, but it turns out that the government itself is in the hands of the one we want to dismantle. Illogically, we continue to support the Zhelyazkov cabinet and we start to lose trust. Members of our party are asking why we are still involved. Our participation in the coalition is unproductive and unhelpful. We are in a losing position," Yudzel Attila of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms told Bulgarian National Radio.

He announced that he was proposing a new national conference to establish a new party, which would include young and educated people, free of dependencies, to show supporters that this is their future.

According to Attila, the support for the MRF-DRF government became a fig leaf for There Is Such a People and BSP to enter into a coalition with GERB. "The party's most valuable asset is Ahmed Dogan, not the three letters MRF,” he stressed, adding, "Where he is, there is the truth. Authentic MRF will continue under this new formula. Dogan is still thinking about my proposal and it seems to me that things are going in that direction."

The party's leadership categorically rejected the prospect of creating a new party before there is a final court decision on the MRF trademark. They also recalled Attila's ambitions to become deputy chairman which ended in failure and said anyone could express a personal opinion, especially when he also had ambitions for a party post.

MPs recalled that in the upcoming elections, unlike the last ones, no one could use the trademark of the MRF and that again both factions would have to participate with coalitions.

The MRF-DRF also said that they had twice asked the Justice Minister where about BGN 1 million of the party subsidy had gone, but there had been no answer. They planned to send a written request to the minister.

ENERGY

TrudNews.bg reports that the last deliveries of Russian nuclear fuel for Kozloduy N-plant have already at the facility after the Russian flagged carrier Slavyanin made the delivery to the Varna Ferry Complex a few days ago.       

Kozloduy N-plant’s nuclear fuel supply contract with the Russian company TVEL, part of Rosatom, was terminated early last year, former Kozloduy director and current Bulgarian Energy Holdingchief Valentin Nikolov told TrudNews.bg.

During last year’s annual repairs of Kozloduy N-plant’s Unit 5, the reactor was loaded with fuel provided by the US company Westinghouse.

The last Russian fuel deliveries under the terminated contract were carried in four rail containers, which were taken to the Kozloduy N-plant under tightened security measures, the specialist website Maritime.bg reported and published a drone video of the nuclear fuel delivery. Maritime.bg recalled that last July Ukraine reported a high-precision strike against a merchant ship in Port Kavkaz. The country's media reported that it was the Ro/Ro cargo ship Slavyanin that had been struck, and some outlets even reported that it had "sunk at the pier." The ship's owners then dismissed the information as speculation and propaganda.

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Speaking on Bulgarian National Television, Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov said that the new compressors at the Chiren gas storage facility have already been installed as part of a project to expand the facility’s capacity by 20%. He explained that with all the steps taken to expand Chiren, its capacity will increase from 550 billion cubic meters to 1,000 billion.

Of an investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office into alleged abuse of EU funds in the award of public procurement contracts for the expansion of Chiren underground gas storage, the Minister said categorically that he would cooperate with the investigation. "I respect the separation of powers. I will be vigilant to ensure that all information is provided to the law enforcement agencies so that they have the whole picture and take the right decision. On the other hand, the alarm may be more to cover up what colleagues of Continue the Change did for four years in the energy sector where they siphoned off BGN 5.4 billion from it for whatever without being able to give an explanation.”

ECONOMY

Capital.bg reports that since 2019, Bulgaria has been closing the gap with the European average in terms of per capita GDP the fastest. Despite the progress, the country has consistently lagged behind others in Eastern Europe, which were at a similar level after the fall of communism. The reasons can be traced back to hyperinflation and the crisis in the 1990s, when Bulgaria experienced a sharp decline in living standards, after which it never managed to catch up with these countries again. However, since 2007, following Bulgaria's accession to the European Union, the country's GDP per capita has been approaching that of the Union almost without interruption every year.

Ten of the EU's 27 member states have a GDP per capita above average, with just over a third of the union's residents.

In 2024, the indicator, which is considered a good benchmark for living standards, reached 66% of the EU average, up 2 percentage points compared with the previous year. This is according to preliminary Eurostat figures, which also take into account price differences between countries.

GDP per person in Bulgaria has grown by 11 percentage points over the last six years, or by at least 2 points each year. Almost as fast are Romania and Croatia, where the indicator has risen by 10 percentage points since 2019. Portugal, Poland, Slovakia and Latvia have each risen by 5 percentage points over the same period. In part, the faster convergence of Eastern European countries recently is also due to the weak growth of Germany and the other leading European economies, which are largely determinants of the overall level, and because of their stagnation it is also rising more slowly. 

According to rough calculations, if it continues at the same pace, Bulgaria could catch up with the European average in about 17 years. In reality, however, it is likely to take much longer - progress usually slows down as we approach the target, judging by the experience of most Central and Eastern European countries. Nor is the target itself static. In addition, low investment and productivity are more likely to slow progress.

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Sega.bg reports that nearly double the amount of social payments were handed out in 2024 compared with the previous year 2023. Last year, BGN 109,161,837 were paid out, compared to BGN 58,357,964 in 2023. More people are receiving benefits - 42,894 compared to 31,518 in 2023. This is according to the Social Assistance Agency's annual report for 2024. The increase is due to the major changes in the system that came into force in mid-2023 - the basis and eligibility criteria changed, as did the amount of benefits. Their effect is more clearly visible now, as 2024 was the first year in which benefits were paid in full under the new arrangements.

Unlike social benefits, the increase in energy allowances is lower, but there have been no major regulatory changes. Some 4% more people received heating allowances compared to 2023 - as of December 31, 2024, there were 339,761 payment authorizations compared to 324,674 in the previous heating season, and the amount paid out was BGN 187,123,639.

The Agency data show a decrease in the number of first-grade and eighth-grade pupils that received one-off aid. For 2024, payments were made to 201,168 children from the first- to the fourth grade and the aid amounted to BGN 300. This compares with 205,878 children supported in the period January-December 2023 for the school year 2023/2024. The number of children supported in the eighth grade is also lower. In 2023, there were 52,426 children and in 2024 50,186.