site.btaMedia Review: May 20

POLITICS

Incumbents and opposition clashed over proposed revisions to the National Assembly rules of procedure on Tuesday as the majority were accused of trying to restrict the rights of the other MPs, 24chasa.bg reports. The proposals were published on Monday afternoon and enraged GERB, Democratic Bulgaria, Continue the Change, and Vazrazhdane. They traded recriminations with Progressive Bulgaria during briefings in the corridors of the legislature. Only the Movement for Rights and Freedoms has not reacted yet.

One important change will be to cut short the time allowed to an MP for speaking from the rostrum on legislative proposals between first and second reading, the website says. The maximum duration of this kind of statement will be reduced to three minutes from the current five. There is also the following idea: "After speaking in substance on a given matter, an MP may not repeat their argumentation, and on connected texts they can only make proposals of editorial nature and such related to legal technicalities, for up to a minute." Setting up an ad hoc committee will require a minimum of 48 votes, and Progressive Bulgaria is the only group large enough to meet this criterion on its own. The majority also propose to reduce the duration of a break in a plenary sitting requested by a parliamentary group. Cabinet ministers will no longer be asked to appear in the National Assembly on the first Wednesday of every month, which effectively means that ministers can be given hearings only by the incumbent majority.

JUDICIARY

A recent televised interview in which European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi rejected claims of political motivation behind the disciplinary proceedings against Bulgaria's suspended European prosecutor Teodora Georgieva, is discussed in a comment published on Trud.bg. The author of the comment, Viktoria Georgieva, argues that the Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) coalition should bear the consequences for their manipulative allegations that Georgieva is being repressed for her attempts to expose wrongdoings of the Establishment. The myth of the "repressed prosecutor" has now been debunked by Kovesi, the author says. She notes that Kovesi had for years been a symbol of "the forces of good", but the CC-DB and their mouthpieces in the media no longer like her, because she refuses to confirm their convenient scenario. "Obviously, everyone is 'independent' and 'honest' as long as she or he serves the coalition's political insinuations. When the facts disprove them, the usual accusations are hurled: 'mafia', 'dependencies', 'repression'."

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It is a mistake to put the focus of judicial reform exclusively on personnel changes, according to Plamen Panayotov, a politician and academic who served as deputy prime minister in charge of European integration between 2003 and 2005. Interviewed by 24chasa.bg, Panayotov notes that the five-year term in office of the elected members of the present Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) expired back in 2022, and the long delay in electing new members means that there is not much time left until the current members complete a second term. In this way, they can go around a constitutional provision which bars them from being re-elected immediately after their first term. The blame should be mainly on the National Assembly, Panayotov says.

According to him, there seem to be no guarantees that the SJC Plenum will not elect an acting prosecutor general and an acting president of the Supreme Administrative Court with the same profile as the current ones. He warns that the ruling party will pay a high political price unless it meets public expectations to quickly make the right decisions about the judicial bodies. The debate on the nominations to the SJC should involve the media, the academic community and the NGO sector, Panayotov insists. He sees substantial deviations from the principles and the objectives of the penal policy concept approved for the period 2020-2025.

ECONOMY

Commenting on the government's push to fight "unfair" price increases, Association for Modern Trade CEO Nikolay Valkanov said on Wednesday's morning talk show of Nova TV: "The fair price is the market price." Valkanov noted that among the measures proposed by the government there are worrying provisions for traders, suppliers and consumers alike. He stated that the Bulgarian market has sufficient competition both in terms of markups and prices. "A large part of the government's proposals are dangerous for consumers, not for traders. If they are not dropped, they will be challenged elsewhere," Valkanov summed up.

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Trud.bg says that the salaries of the directors of large state-owned hospitals, public enterprises and government agencies will be cut down to ensure that they do not exceed EUR 8,472 per month. This follows from Finance Minister Galab Donev's statement on Monday that a cap will be set on public-sector salaries so that no one earns more than the President of Bulgaria. Approached by the website, financial experts said that such high salaries are paid in some government agencies and public enterprises, including energy companies, water and sewerage operators and defence suppliers. High incomes are also earned by the top executives at the Bulgarian Development Bank and the Bulgarian National Bank, but they are beyond the scope of the measures because they are governed by separate laws. One of the highest pay levels in the public sector is for the head of the Air Traffic Services Authority, who earns between EUR 12,000 and EUR 14,000 monthly.

On the video channel of SegaBG.com, economist Nikola Yankov says that the measures announced by the Finance Minister for reducing expenditures in the public administration and capping remuneration levels in the public sector are in the right direction, but some of them smack of populism. Yankov comments that the landslide election victory of Progressive Bulgaria, led by former president Rumen Radev, allows the new government to make bold reforms, which is imperative if Bulgaria wants to stabilize its public finances and achieve decent economic growth. The expert argues that cutting state administration expenditures by 10% and abolishing the rule to adjust salaries in some public-financed sectors based on the rise of the minimum or the average salary in Bulgaria is not enough, and it will be necessary to act much more boldly in the coming years. The state administration is overgrown with redundant staff positions and entities as the formerly ruling GERB party, and later Continue the Change, counted on voters from government departments. Progressive Bulgaria now have a chance to reverse that, and no one will hold it against them, Yankov says. He describes as populism the incumbents' intention to limit the highest public-sector salaries to the level of the Bulgarian President's income. This, according to him, means that the government will appoint not-so-competent people to the respective positions. "This is ridiculous. Some of these companies have a turnover in the order of billions. In the private sector, these people would earn tens of times more. If they agree to work for less money than now, it will be for other reasons."

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Yet another new government has vowed to make disclosures and reforms in the State Consolidation Company (SCC), SegaBG.com says in an analysis signed by Tanya Petrova. The holding group, whose assets are worth BGN 1.9 billion (EUR 970 million), includes very diverse companies and has long shifted away from its original purpose to sell minority state-owned stakes in enterprises. It has become one of the least transparent state enterprises, Petrova writes. Another reason for strong appetites and covert strategies targeting the SCC emerged last year, when the VMZ Sopot ordnance plant signed a deal with German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall to build two plants in Bulgaria to make artillery shells and gunpowder. The huge investment is on the agenda and is one of the puzzles which the cabinet of Prime Minister Rumen Radev needs to address when drafting the state budget for 2026. Given that the investment amounts to billions, it was not an accident that the caretaker government of former prime minister Andrey Gurov made changes in the two Bulgarian companies directly involved: VMZ and Iganovo, the author says.

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"Bulgarian Agriculture Between Real Crisis and Politicians' Apocalyptical Statements," caps an analysis published on MediaPool.bg. The author, Dragomir Nikolov, says that the new incumbency, including Prime Minister Rumen Radev and Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Alexander Poulev, have warned that Bulgarian agriculture is in "total collapse". The allegation has been made in connection with another hot topic: the effort to curb inflation. After reviewing the situation in the sector, the analyst says that experts and farmer associations have called for three key reforms: changing the subsidy system, setting up cooperatives, and expanding access to wholesale markets. The political drama about the existing problems is yet to be assessed, the author says. "When you give such a dark diagnosis of Bulgarian agriculture, whether justified or not, any small improvement in the sector will be deemed a great success," said MP Aylin Pehlivanova, an agricultural expert, as quoted by the website.