site.btaMedia Review: June 12

SOCIETY

In an interview for Nova TV given on Thursday morning, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria Co-Floor Leader and former justice minister Nadejda Iordanova said that the problem with degrading conditions in homes for the elderly is systemic and persistent, since back in 2006, the European Court of Human Rights had condemned Bulgaria for it. She criticized the prosecution service for trying and failing to act like a regional health inspectorate, like the Agency for Quality of Social Services, or like an ombudsman.

Since 2022, the ombudsman institution has been pushing to criminalize the illegal provision of social services to the elderly and sick. In this context, Iordanova said that the proposal was partially accepted, specifically in cases of domestic violence. "This is neglecting the problem. This parliament should adopt the criminalization of such acts and elect a new ombudsman," she added.

The former justice minister backed the idea of fast-tracking the revocation of social institutions' licences but stressed that this was only part of the solution. "Soon 27% of the Bulgarian population will be over 65. We need new hospices, palliative care, funding for long-term care, including in homes," she concluded.

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Nova TV has published data from a survey that The Enlighteners Foundation conducted among members of the Facebook group Ne si sama - zaedno sreshtu nasilieto [You are not alone – United against violence]. Three out of four respondents believe that two years after the Protection Against Domestic Violence Act was amended, Bulgarian institutions are yet to start functioning properly victims of violence. Another 85% confess that they still endure violence in some form despite having left an abusive relationship.

ECONOMY

Sofia Commodity Exchange Director Vasil Simov said on Nova TV's morning programme that markets are calm. He added that if Bulgaria manages to avoid disasters and especially wars, then the market can be expected to remain calm at least until the end of the summer. Simov reported that wheat prices in the main international exchanges – in the US and France – have declined between 10 and 13% over the past year due to the excellent harvest. “The annual harvest is over 806 million tonnes worldwide, which suggests this downward trend in the price of wheat,” he added. There is a similar trend in the Black Sea markets – Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria.

Sunflower is currently trading more expensive compared to last year - around USD 520 per tonne, compared to USD 470 then. Simov, expects a correction in September when harvest is due: “I am convinced that the price will drop to around USD 500 per tonne in September, as it was last year.”

The price of sunflower oil has also risen: “Oil in Rotterdam has reached USD 1,200 per tonne - an increase of about 14% on June last year.” Still, the expert said that the price will likely drop in September during the new harvest.

In response to a question about an expected sharp increase in prices of a specific commodity, Simov was adamant: “There will be no noticeable spike.”

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In an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, Anton Ivanov, energy expert at the Bulgarian Energy and Mining Forum, reported that electricity prices have risen by about 14% on an annual basis compared to the last price period, which he described as a substantial increase. He added: "We have not had such a year-on-year increase in the price of electricity before. Cumulatively, this makes us think that liberalization or free market prices will bring them closer and drive our bills." In his words, electricity prices are now determined by a different mechanism. "This is a complex change, and it remains to be seen whether and to what extent it will protect the end user." He added that there is no money in the Electricity System Security Fund for household consumers, per the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission. It is expected that money will come into the Fund from the state budget. The expert said: "Proceeds to the fund from carbon sales are declining sharply. Revenues in the fund are largely determined by the 5% collected from commercial participants, but these revenues are sufficient to cover the costs of compensating renewable energy producers, thermal power plants for electricity, for the remaining one year of the long-term contract with the Maritsa East 1 TPP. But there is very little money left for households."

JUDICIAL

An op-ed in Capital.bg entitled New Manoeuvres to Preserve the Status Quo in Justice reads: "On the verge of summer, two manoeuvres related to the upper echelons of the judiciary once again drew the attention to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) with an expired mandate and acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov. The first one is the Constitutional Court's decision, expected for weeks, which admitted for consideration the case surrounding the terminated procedure for the election of the prosecutor general, in which Sarafov was the only candidate. And the second one is the apparent passing of the ball between the SJC and Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev (from GERB), which aims to change the rules for the election of new members for the professional quota in the Judicial Council."

According to the article, the two shifts in the judiciary during a time of political chaos show once again that the ultimate goal is to preserve the status quo. "And if until recently it was expected that GERB and Peevski's MRF, generally speaking, would reshape the law to suit them, now the options, as well as the institutions involved, appear to be more."

The op-ed continues: "On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court announced that it had admitted for consideration the case of the terminated procedure for the election of the prosecutor general. The rapporteur of the case is Orlin Kolev, who was sent to the Constitutional Court in March with the votes of GERB, There Is Such a People, BSP - United Left, and Peevski's [MRF] New Beginning. He [Kolev] is known for his position on the issue. Before going to the Constitutional Court, he publicly defended the acting prosecutor general and claimed that suspending his election contradicted the Constitution.

"In January this year (before the Zhelyazkov government was formed, which exists thanks to Delyan Peevski), amendments to the Judicial System Act came into force on the initiative of CC-DB, which regulated that a Supreme Judicial Council with an expired mandate cannot elect a prosecutor general and chairpersons of the two supreme courts. However, this applies henceforth. In the meantime, the Judicial Council (which has an expired mandate) had started a procedure for the election of the Prosecutor General. It was therefore necessary to state in the amendments that the procedures that had been initiated would be terminated. Thus, the procedure, in which Borislav Sarafov was the only candidate for the title, was stopped by a legal text.

"Sarafov challenged the termination before the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). The SAC in turn referred the case to the Constitutional Court, arguing that the legal provision violated the constitution because it was an interference by the parliament in the scope of the constitutionally regulated powers of the SJC. The ruling published on Wednesday shows that nine constitutional judges considered the case admissible for review, while three - Yanaki Stoilov, Sonya Yankulova and Atanas Semov - signed the decision with a dissenting opinion. They argue that one of the requirements for admissibility is missing when the inquiry comes from a court. It is necessary that the legal case be such that its resolution is relevant to the ruling."

The text predicts that no matter how the situation develops, if the changes launched by this SJC are passed, the control in voting for the professional quota for the next SJC (whenever the election is) will be significantly easier than it is under the current legislation. By reducing the requirement that the polls be open to 500 people, judges will be able to vote, generally speaking, by regional court. Judges from Sofia suggested to Capital that their colleagues' votes would thus be more easily “managed.” There are just under 2,300 judges in Bulgaria, with a requirement for a section with a minimum of 500 eligible voters, making four sections across the country. If judges have to travel to big cities such as Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, the control mechanisms of administrative heads would be vastly diminished, one representative of the judiciary told Capital. On the other hand, if they vote by regions, the head of the regional court will be able to more easily monitor the “correct” vote for the next members of the SJC.

EDUCATION

An article in Dnevnik.bg reports that according to a final decision of the Supreme Administrative Court publicized on June 5, 2025, the only body in the state that has the power to check and detect plagiarism, the Academic Ethics Commission, has been blocked on wrong grounds by its principal, the Ministry of Education and Science. The Court refuted the main argument that has been used to publicly explain the termination of the Academic Ethics Committee's investigations into plagiarism reports over the past year, including against rectors. It concerns the timing of the commission's rulings, meaning that checks were terminated not because of the lack of plagiarism but because the check was delayed. Among the investigated are acting Trakia University Rector Dobri Yarkov and Dr Rosen Tsolov who is working at Medical University - Varna.