site.btaMedia Review: June 10

MORE DISCOVERIES OF ILLEGAL NURSING HOMES

Tuesday media report that another three illegal care homes near Varna were uncovered during a night raid by a 45-member team of the social service, justice, police and tax authorities. Fourteen people were admitted in hospital and 130 will be placed in other licenced institutions, Labour Minister Borislav Gutsanov and Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev told a news briefing on Tuesday.

Following the inspections, two pre-trial proceedings have been initiated for failure to provide care. The homes have been audited many times and investigations have been conducted in the past because of fraud and fires in them, reported the director of the Regional Police Department of Varna, Senior Commissioner Andrey Angelov. According to him, the offenders are the same, but over the months they have changed their front companies registered in the names of socially disadvantaged people.

“The inspections are already over 100 and will continue until we uncover the last house of horrors,” Minister Gutsanov said. He described the fine of BGN 7,000 BGN operating illegally a care home as negligible and added that legal changes are being prepared to tighten control. “We will propose to criminalize the unregulated provision of this type of social services,” Justice Minister Georgiev said. He commented that the public has also contributed to the overall grim picture. At least a hundred people knew what was going on in the home in the village. Yagoda, for example, but no one reacted, the minister said. The authorities also appeal to relatives to check carefully where their elderly parents are staying and not to leave them for months without visits.

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24 Chasa carries an interview with Labour Minister Borislav Gutsanov amid discoveries across the country of illegal nursing homes. Minister Gutsanov said: “I will not allow abuse of our mothers and fathers, and grandparents! The state is ready to respond with all its power. The checks are continuing. The Social Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the police, the Public Prosecutor's Office, and the Medical Supervision Agency are acting together. We are also considering legal changes, because obviously these people are currently taking advantage of a loophole in the law. They are not actually registered as a social service, but as rooms for rent. We should think about criminalizing such actions.

We have an extraordinary chance to completely change care for the elderly under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. This will not just be a reform. It will improve the way of life for our grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers and fathers. Unfortunately, when the Cabinet took office, we found severe delays. Since then, our team has not stopped working to make this change happen. Some 81 homes in 73 communities will be completely transformed. This will improve the living conditions of some 5,600 adults.”

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Palliative care, for the last stage of life, remains the backyard of medicine in Bulgaria. There is no long-term commitment to the elderly, said in an interview for Bulgarian National Radio clinical social assistant Alexander Milanov, who works in a large private hospital.

The state should take over the care of the elderly, as it did for children after Mogilino, he urged after the publication of shocking data on accommodation places for the elderly.

"This is a public duty. Someone has to lead this narrative!"

The problem with the elderly is not from yesterday. Such places are sprouting like mushrooms. These are extremely undignified places to die, said the specialist. According to him, elderly care will become an increasingly serious problem given the ageing population.

A big challenge to the social care system is the quality of the workforce; very few people work in it. There are no staff in the health system, there are no social workers, there are not enough places for people in need, Milanov said.

A person who can spare BGN 1,100-1,600 for such care for a relative is not necessarily poor. There is a hunger for such services and such support, he believes. He said this means that the state can create mechanisms through public-private partnerships.

BULGARIA'S TERRITORY EXPANDS

24 Chasa writes that in the last two years, 2023 and 2024, the territory of Bulgaria has expanded by 5.3 hectares, or 53,000 square metres, according to statistical, published on Monday.

The area, occupied by Bulgaria, has always been and continues to be 110,996 sq. km. After the decimal point, however, there are still three characters that change every year. For example, at the end of 2022, the measurements showed that Bulgaria covered 110,996.708 square kilometres. At the end of the following year, 2023, our territory

Was 110,996.758 square kilometres, to grow to 110,996.761 square kilometres. That makes a total of 53,000 square metres, or 5.3 hectares - the size of a rather large field.

Almost all of the new territories are in Northern Bulgaria. The National Statistical Institute explained to 24 Chasa that there is nothing surprising in the data - the area of the country for ten years now is measured by the digital models of the cadastral map, which are much more accurate. Specifically, the increase in the territory in 2023 and 2024 came from the sediments that the Danube River accumulates in the Bulgarian territorial waters, which are added to the area of the country. In the previous years, for example, the country's territory decreased by more or less the same amount. This, in turn, is due to the erosion of the Black Sea coast, where every year the sea absorbs parts of the coast. The largest part of the country is occupied by agricultural areas - 54.5%, and forest areas - 33.3%, of the total area of Bulgaria. Urbanized territories cover 4.8%.

EURO CHANGEOVER

Interviewed by TrudNews.bg, Valentin Vatsev, political scientist and international analyst comments on the latest protests against the adoption of the euro. According to him, the euro is only an occasion, and this is the first rally against the European ideal. Vatsev is convinced that the energy of the rallies comes from the non-voting Bulgarians who have accumulated enormous political energy. And this means that within a year a significant political force will emerge.

Asked whether it is possible for a Eurosceptic party to emerge, he says: “For the first time, an idea complex with demands and emotions is emerging, which, if it is a little more persistent, can break through the membrane between the political Bulgarians and those who refuse to vote, and they are 65%, which delegitimizes the entire Bulgarian political life and this political system is living out its last days, existing by inertia. My hypothesis is, and I think it is now confirmed, that the energy of the rallies comes from the Bulgarians who do not vote, who have accumulated enormous political energy. If this is true, and it will be found out very soon, we will see a new political life in Bulgaria next year. This means that in a year's time a significant political force will emerge, which I tentatively call ‘Alternative for Bulgaria’, similar to the German one. It is officially right-wing, in reality it is rather centrist, and politically it is conservative, its pathos is directed against German liberalism. If these people from the rally manage to activate the 65% of Bulgarians who do not vote, next year we will still have Alternative for Bulgaria. Which means that this year marks the end of 35 years of uncritical Europeanism in Bulgaria. Next year the political profile will be “Europeanism yes, but what kind of Europeanism”?

He goes on to say that with the adoption of the euro the rich will become richer and the poor - poorer. Inflation will increase, and inflation is a poverty tax. That is what will happen and it cannot happen otherwise. Boyko Borissov's talk about Bulgaria joining ‘white countries’ is plain unconscious racism. His football metaphors aren't even propaganda, it's a simple and helpless way of talking about the world. “There are no problems with Borissov, the issue is that the Bulgarian political elite could not form a message to the public that starts like this: ‘We understand your concerns, however... first, second, third, tenth’. This is how it is done in white countries, as Boyko Borissov would say.”

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“Inflation in Bulgaria is above the euro area average. The reason for this is the unwise policies in the last four years - to live on borrowing, and to spend more than we produce and earn. This is irrelevant to the question of what currency we pay with,” said Vassil Velev, chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association on Nova TV.

Entrepreneur Tanya Skrinska said that many prices are going up and it has nothing to do with the currency. Dobromir Ivanov, executive director of the Bulgarian Entrepreneurial Association, explained that in recent years there has been a price spike without Bulgaria being in the eurozone. He explained that in order to prevent a price spike, more sectors need to be fully market-based. Velev is adamant that the adoption of the euro will not make people poorer.

"We will have a better status as a country, better working conditions, we will pay lower interest on the state debt, we will have less costs for revaluation. All this creates conditions for increasing investment, improving the business environment, and therefore increasing incomes," he added.

Skrinska said that joining the eurozone is a political decision, but she expressed doubt that we are ready for it. "Joining the eurozone has its positive and negative aspects," Skrinska said. She said that investments do not depend on whether we are in the eurozone or not, but on the business climate and whether there is corruption in the country

YOUTH ADDICTION STUDY

Dnevnik.bg writes that Bulgarian teenagers are among the heaviest smokers in Europe. This is especially true for girls, according to 2024 data for 37 European countries from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), published at the end of April. It has tracked changing patterns of substance use among 15-16 year olds every four years for over 30 years.

Overall, young people's use of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes is declining, but there has been an increase in e-cigarettes, and in their risk-taking behaviour in relation to the non-medical use of drugs and new psychoactive substances. More and more children are addicted to gaming and gambling and spend too much time on social media. The findings reveal a marked increase in risky behaviour among girls in several areas.

As far as Bulgaria is concerned, apart from smoking-related indicators, our country is number 1 in the use of laughing gas among young people, according to the survey conducted in Bulgaria by the National Centre for Public Health and Analyses with the Ministry of Health.

A total of 113,882 students in 37 countries, 25 of which are members of the European Union (EU), participated in the survey last year. 

Among teenagers, Bulgaria has the highest percentage of daily smokers - 19.89%, compared with an average of 7.9% across the 37 countries.

For Bulgarian girls, the percentage is over 20 - 21.45% and for boys it is 18.34%. Croatia follows with 19.64%. At the opposite end is Iceland with less than one percent (0.8%). Thirty years ago, 20% of European 15–16-year-olds smoked every day.

Bulgaria also tops the list in terms of early smoking initiation, i.e. 13 years or earlier. On average, 3.6% of these children smoke every day across all countries, compared with 8.7% in Bulgaria. 

In 2024, on average one in eight pupils aged 15-16 admitted to having used drugs at least once in their lifetime.

Rates vary between 4% and 25% across countries. The highest rates are observed in Liechtenstein (25%) and the Czech Republic (24%) and the lowest in Georgia and Moldova (3.9% each). Bulgaria has a rate of 12.39%, compared to 19.33% in 2019 and the highest prevalence in 2015 (29.86%).

The highest prevalence of gambling among students is in Italy (45%), followed by Iceland (41%) and Greece (36%), while the lowest percentage is in Georgia (9.5%). In Bulgaria, 21.63% gambled in the last 12 months. This is lower than in 2019 (26.5%) and 2015 (31.44%).

ECONOMY

Sega.bg reports that companies which recycle metals, plastics, etc. have decided to raise the so-called product fees drastically - by between 700-900%. The increase, scheduled to take effect from 1 July, will inevitably affect the prices of electrical appliances and electronics in shops. 

Two major business associations, the Bulgarian Association of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (BASEL) and the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances APPLiA Bulgaria, have raised the alarm. They have asked for urgent government intervention.

If until now a recycling company charges BGN 5 for the recycling of a TV set, from 1 July the fee will become BGN 40. For a microwave oven, the increase will be from BGN 3 to BGN 20. Lighting bulbs, solar panels, phones and tablets will also go up in price.

For a 60-kg washing machine, the increase in the fee could lead to an additional cost of tens of leva, BASEL said.

Product charges are calculated in the final prices of products by manufacturers and importers of white and black goods, tools, equipment. The funds go to waste recovery companies. There are five such enterprises in the country - the state-owned Enterprise for Management of Environmental Protection Activities and four private organizations – Eltech Resource, Ecobultech, Greentech Bulgaria and Transins Technorecycling Company.

The price increase was announced simultaneously by three of the private enterprises. They have already sent warning letters to businesses that rely on their recycling services that there will be an ‘update’ to product charges from 1 July. The reasons - increased costs (for wages, electricity, petrol, etc.). However, it is not clear how they got the update to 700-900%, i.e. a 10-fold jump in fees. 

BASEL and APPLiA Bulgaria insist that the government should take measures against the pending inflation spiral. They want an urgent meeting with Environment Minister Manol Genov and a review of the fees collected by the state-owned enterprise. So far there has been no response.

The Commission for Competition Protection said that it is launching an investigation into whether there is inadmissible coordination of the price increase. The problem is that cartel investigations usually take a long time, and the fee hike will happen in a few days.

The Commission said it had forwarded the alert to the National Revenue Agency and to the Consumer Protection Commission so that they too "can take the necessary action within the scope of their powers under the cooperation agreement signed for enhanced joint control and coordination between the institutions".