Retirement age in Bulgaria for males and females will be the same after 2020, according to the Minister of Social Policy and Labor, Totyu Mladenov.

Mladenov explained Monday that in 2017 retirement age for men would reach 65 while by 2020 the one for females will be 63, and it will increase, along with the required years of service, by 4 months each year for both sexes. He added that making retirement age the same after 2020 can only happen gradually.

The Minister further informed that debates on retirement age of army personnel and employees of the Interior Ministry with the participation of the labor unions are pending.

The minimum retirement age in Bulgaria was increased by 4 months as of January 1, 2012, as part of a controversial retirement reform package that kicked in.

The same measure will be applied on the first day of each of the upcoming several years, until the retirement age in Bulgaria reaches 65 years for men and 63 for women.

Up until the new pension reform was approved in December 2011, Bulgaria’sretirement age was 63 years for men and 60 years for women.

In addition, the minimum time served by police and military officers in Bulgaria required for retirement has been increased by 2 years, reaching 27 years.

In December, Bulgaria’s Parliament expectedly rejected the veto imposed by outgoing President Georgi Parvanov on retirement age changes.

The controversial “retirement reform” to up the pension age was initiated byFinance Minister Simeon Djankov in the fall of 2011 as a way of saving budget funds sooner rather than later; an earlier agreement with syndicates and business organizations was supposed to delay the increase of the retirement age in Bulgaria till 2021.

Also on Monday, Totyu Mladenov voiced hope that by 2013 unemploymentamong young Bulgarians would decrease by 4%-5% and that an agreement with the business and the labor unions will be signed by the end of May regarding offering first jobs for youth.

The Minister declared the Cabinet is undertaking a number of measures to reduceyouth unemployment.

According to flash results from the Labor Force Survey, carried out and published by the National Statistical Institute, NSI, in the first quarter of 2012 theunemployment rate in the country has reached the staggering 12.9%.

Bulgaria’s ex Tsar and ex Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg has published an article claiming that his primary motivation for “accepting” to head the Bulgarian government in 2001 was to make the country an EU member.

The article in question appeared on Saxe-Coburg’s website on Tuesday, April 24, apparently intended to note the anniversary since the signing of Bulgaria’s EUaccession treaty seven years ago, on April 25, 2005.

Ironically, in his capacity as Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2001-2005, Saxe-Coburg, who was the last Tsar of the Bulgarians in 1943-1946 as a minor, before his family was exiled by the communists, signed the Bulgarian EU accession treaty together with the country’s President Georgi Parvanov, a former head of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the descendant of the Bulgarian Communist Party.

In his article Tuesday, Saxe-Coburg explains that back in April 2005 he insisted on the signing of Bulgaria’s EU accession treaty as soon as possible even though some of his aides were in favor of a later and grander signing ceremony.

“We all know that change in the mood in the EU after the referendums [on the EUConstitution Treaty] in France and the Netherlands, and the tangible danger of postponing completely the signing of the accession treaties with Bulgaria and Romania,” the ex Prime Minister of Bulgaria recalls.

“For me, Bulgaria’s EU accession was not only our main national goal but, honestly speaking, it was also the very motive for me to accept the Prime Minister’s post in 2001. Knowing, however, that the trust that I have in the international circles will help, I undertook this hard mission for me and my family. After a 50-year exile being able to work from here for the well-being of my compatriots – this was more important than anything,” Saxe-Coburg claims.

“On April 2005, during the actual signing of the Treaty, of course, I felt an indescribable emotion. I should not miss the opportunity here to declare my great gratitude for the Grand Duke of Luxembourg as well as the Prime MinisterJean-Claude Juncker,” he adds.

“It was additional delight for me that Bulgaria was also represented, as I believed that it should, by its President (i.e. then President Georgi Parvanov – editor’s note), regardless of the opposition by certain circles. During this fateful decision for all citizens, the strengthening of statehood was an important prerequisite for success,” argues the ex Tsar.

Even though he won the Bulgarian general elections in a landslide a couple of months after returning from exile in 2001, Saxe-Coburg’s record as Prime Minister and head of his party, which was first name “National Movement Simeon the Second”, and was later renamed to “National Movement for Stability and Prosperity”, remains controversial, with many Bulgarians being outraged by the fact that he has gotten in a court battle with the Bulgarian state over the ownership of the former estates of the Bulgarian royal family, which were snatched in the 1940s.

Many in Bulgaria actually tend to believe that Saxe-Coburg’s return to Bulgaria was motivated by the former royal estates, and the need to prop up his family finances – allegations that he seems to be refuting indirectly with his Tuesday’s statement dedicated to the anniversary of the signing of Bulgaria’s EU accession treaty.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has stated he is “amused” by the battle between Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Sergey Stanishev and his opponent, Georgi Parvanov.

Stanishev has a certain advantage in the media, Borisov reckons.

“I see that almost everyone is now referring to the former President as “Gotse,”" the Prime Minister observed, referring to Parvanov’s alias from the time he was agent of the Communist State Security.

Borisov criticized both Stanishev and Parvanov with regards to the BSP-backedBelene Nuclear Power Plant project his government recently dropped.

“Parvanov was president for ten years. Since 2006, he has seen perfectly well that Stanishev does not want to build Belene. Stanishev himself knows that he has done nothing on the construction of Belene, besides over BGN 600 M being spent from the Paribas credit,” the Prime Minister noted.

On Saturday, BSP leadership opponent Stanishev and Parvanov addressed supporters in Sofia, criticizing ruling Borisov’s centrist-right GERB and vowing to win the 2013 general elections.

China views Bulgaria as a reliable partner in Europe and within the EU, Gen. Xu Caihou, member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, told Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov in Sofia.

Xu, who is on a three-day visit in Sofia as part of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has also thanked Bulgaria for adhering to the policy of “One China“, i.e. abstaining from establishing formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan – which was confirmed once again by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov at their meeting on Wednesday.

Gen. Xu Caihou, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission in the PRC, presented greetings to Bulgarian President Parvanov from China‘s President Hu Jintao on the occasion of Bulgaria’s National Unification Day, September 6, the press office of the Bulgarian Presidency reported in a statement.

Parvanov has reiterated an earlier invite for a visit by Hu to Bulgaria; if he comes to Bulgaria before his term as President of the PRC expires in 2013, Hu will be become the first Chinese President to visit Bulgaria. However, Parvanov will hardly be the one to welcome him in Sofia because his second term expires in January 2012.

Parvanov met with Hu back in 2008 in China when he visited Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

During his talks with Gen. Xu, Bulgarian President Parvanov stressed the great potential for trade and Chinese investments in Bulgaria, pointing out the car manufacturing plant of Great Wall Motors in Bulgaria’s Lovech in cooperation with the local company Litex.

www.novinite.com

Some 63% of Bulgarians are pessimists about their country’s future, according to a poll conducted by Gallup International in April 2011.

After March became the first month in which over 60% of the surveyed by Gallup were pessimistic about their country’s development since the current ruling centrist-right GERB party took over in 2009, April’s poll marked a 2% decrease.

Bulgaria’s EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva, is the most popular Bulgarian politician, scoring a 62% approval rating.

Lagging far behind are three political figures with an equal rating – Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev, President Georgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, all of whom with 39%. Bulgaria’s former European commissioner, Meglena Kuneva is also there with 38%, the poll says.

If the Parliamentary election were to be held now in Bulgaria, GERB would claim the victory with 25%, the leftist Bulgarian Socialist Party would gather around 20%, while the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms would attract 6% of the voters.

If Borisov was to face Kuneva in a possible second tour of the upcoming presidential elections, he would gather 33% against her 27% with the rest not voting. Kuneva would beat Plevneliev by 30% to 25%. If Kuneva is to face current Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, she would win 32% against Tsvetanov’s 20%.