site.btaMedia Review: April 26

POLITICS

The real reason for Rosen Zhelyazkov to be ousted as Parliament Chair is that Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) is making a crisis PR campaign to shift the focus away from the poodle photos, the wads of euro bills, the customs and their links with smugglers. Information has come out that such people have entered the Ministry of Finance, said MP Daniel Mitov of GERB-UDF on Nova TV’s morning show.

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The removal of Rosen Zhelyazkov from the post of National Assembly Chair is not a personal revenge for the fact that the same people toppled Nikola Minchev from the post some time ago, nor is this a demonstration of majority, said MP Yavor Bozhankov of CC-DB on Nova. According to him, the reason was rooted in the fact that GERB wanted to impose its agenda in the National Assembly. "Zhelyazkov was the instrument for this to happen," the MP stressed.

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We entered the so-called “assemblage” with GERB, but we underestimated how dependent they are on the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). The mastermind, the head of GERB is MRF co-chair Delyan Peevski, said Lena Borislavova, former chef de cabinet in Kiril Petkov’s government, on bTV. She added that if GERB leader Boyko Borissov is ready to implement the reforms set in the programme with a clear deadline, there could be a joint government between CC-DB and GERB. Borislavova stated categorically that they will not work with MRF in any form and on any topic in the future.

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“The door is open to GERB, but two big figures can hardly fit in” is Dnevnik’s quote of the day.

This is how Yavor Bozhankov (CC-DB) answered the question whether the coalition would partner with Boyko Borissov's party after the early parliamentary elections on June 9. He dismissed the possibility of talks on joint governance with MRF and stressed that there would be a relationship with GERB if the party distanced itself from MRF and their co-chair Delyan Peevski, who is sanctioned for corruption under the global Magnitsky Act.

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GERB does not want to work with CC-DB, but is open to talks with MRF. CC-DB does not want to work with MRF, but is open to talks with GERB, another title reads.

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The National Assembly will discuss amendments to the Defence and Armed Forces Act. This is the first item on the agenda for Friday, published on Parliament's website. The amendments provide for higher salaries for the servicemen from 2025, Trud reports.

The recent first-reading amendments provide for an average 30% increase in the salaries of servicemen from the start of 2025, while maintaining the established differentiation between military ranks and positions.

The second item on the agenda is the ratification of an international treaty to amend and supplement the contract for the F-16 Block 70 aircraft and associated support under the US Foreign Military Sales programme. 

Friday's sitting is the last working day of the 49th National Assembly. After that, the MPs will first be in recess for the holidays, then on leave until the June 9 parliamentary elections.

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24 Chasa runs an interview with Dimitar Markov, senior analyst with CSD.

According to him, corruption as a practice is beginning to be perceived as one of the most common methods of solving a problem. And as a sensible means rather than an exception. This also shows the lack of fear of sanction - if such a percentage of people agree to such practices, it means that there is an environment of impunity. 

People are not reluctant to engage in corrupt practices to solve a particular problem.

Apart from being a political slogan, anti-corruption is becoming something more worrying - a façade for some reforms.

We can talk at length about whether the fight against corruption should start from the top down or from the bottom up. The fact is that what should start from the top down has already been done. Both our international partners and our research show that, in terms of legislation and institutional framework, everything necessary to combat corruption is in place. The point is that it is not working.

On the other hand, the problem is also in any combination of factors related to low capacity and lack of mutual control between institutions. All of this creates a vacuum in which our façade says: “We have everything in place, we have the laws, we have the institutions”, but behind it there is chaos in which corruption thrives.

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The new migration rules are an attempt to reform the previously dysfunctional Dublin Regulation, which placed a heavy burden on frontline states, said MEP Tsvetelina Penkova of PES/BSP in the morning show of BNT in her comments on the newly adopted Pact on Migration and Asylum.

They aim to create a mechanism for solidarity between the member states: all should take their responsibility, and the entire burden of refugees and migrants will not fall on the countries on the front line, including Bulgaria. This is a great success for Bulgaria, because we will be able to receive both financial and technical assistance. Migrants will be distributed evenly across Europe - that was the aim of this reform.

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Capital weekly runs an article titled “Has Bulgaria Quietly Given Up the Recovery Plan?”

Bulgaria is about to sacrifice billions of EU funds which it could use to modernize various areas of its economy, because it cannot (or does not want to) make the necessary reforms. This is the inevitable conclusion of postponing the changes that would unlock the EUR 5.7 billion under the national Recovery and Resilience Plan. These funds are not only overdue, but may not come at all because, according to sources in Brussels, the whole Bulgarian Recovery Plan is heading for failure. 

The reason is that for the first time EU funds require reforms, and not just on paper, but real action for normative and practical changes in the energy sector, justice, economic competitiveness, etc. However, Bulgaria refuses to do so and does not seem to mind paying this high price. According to the set timetable in the first half of 2024, the country was already supposed to work on the fourth of nine payments under the Plan. So far, however, only the first one - of EUR 1.3 billion - has been made.

Four key bills, which were expected to be adopted as early as last year, are pending in the National Assembly to make the second payment happen. However, there is no time for this against the backdrop of the upcoming new elections in June.

There is also GERB and MRF’s decision to postpone for a year the liberalization of wholesale electricity prices, which in turn means the extension of the state aid for TPPs. The liberalization of the electricity market is a key reform of the Plan, and by blocking it at the last moment, probably as a pre-election ploy, the MPs put at risk the entire financial mechanism for over EUR 4 billion.

"The problem is not the household electricity prices themselves, but the fact that by their actions the MPs are effectively extending support for coal plants, and the unions are demanding that it continues until 2030," says an analyst at the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD).

Without meeting key targets for the second payment, the way forward is almost impossible. The real question is whether lawmakers are even willing to finish the reforms. And the answer seems to be no, the author concludes.

ADVERSITY

Measures to be taken by the health authorities against the spread of pertussis in the country will be announced on Friday, the Bulgarian National Radio reports.

To protect newborns, for the time being, the first vaccination against the disease will be administered two weeks earlier, when the baby turns one and a half months old.

No restrictions on people's movement and access to public places are foreseen, as at the time of the COVID pandemic, according to statements by the State Chief Health Inspector, Dr. Angel Kunchev.

Access will be facilitated to laboratory testing for pertussis, using facilities in the university towns of Plovdiv, Varna, Stara Zagora, and Pleven. Diagnosis will be free for certain groups of patients.

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Powerful hail hit southern Bulgaria. In some places the ice chunks were the size of a walnut, BNT reports. Only in the area of the village of Zetyovo near Stara Zagora, which was among the most affected on Thursday, about 5,000 hectares of agricultural areas were destroyed. Inventorying the damage continues, and the affected areas are expected to increase because a second hailstorm fell in the wee hours of Friday. Neighbouring villages were also seriously affected. Not all farmers have insurance.