Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, wished success to the two major parties in the now former right-wing Blue Coalition, after news reports about the latter’s breakup.

“Both the Union of Democratic Forces, UDF, and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, DSB, are our political partners in the European right wing and in the European People’s Party, EPP, and I wish them success,” Borisov told the media Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, UDF‘s National Council gathered in the city of Plovdiv to decide on whether it would take part in the 2013 general elections on its own. 49 members ofUDF‘s National Council voted for leaving the Blue Coalition and 34 were against.

“It is GERB‘s principle to not comment on internal issues and decisions of other parties,” Borisov further said.

In the last weeks, working teams of both UDF and DSB negotiated in depth the coalition agreement and the decision to dissolve the Blue Coalition came as somewhat a surprise to many.

Under the UDF party code, a new leader must now be elected.

The Blue Coalition was established in the eve of the general elections in 2009 and has been marred by troubles and discord ever since. It currently has 14 Members of the Parliament after Ventsislav Varbanov left to become independent.

The Coalition registered in 2009 for the European Parliament Elections without theUDF being officially listed as a party. The former UDF leader, Plamen Yurukov, who strongly opposed a coalition with the DSB leader, Ivan Kostov, registered with the Central Elections Commission, CEK, an UDF duplicate. UDF was officially listed as a coalition partner of DSB in time for the general elections.

DSB has said it is prepared to participate in the elections on its own. However, its representatives were in favor of keeping the Coalition alive.

Recent polls have suggested that neither of the two parties would be capable of gathering 4% of all votes in the 2013 election, the bare minimum required for entering the country’s Parliament.

www.novinite.com

All candidates for elective offices in Bulgaria should undergo an obligatorypsychological assessment, Krasimir Velchev, a key MP with ruling centrist-rightGERB, has proposed.

The new measure should include Presidential runners, candidates for Mayors andcandidates for municipal council members, Velchev has told the 24 Chasa daily.

He has pointed out that the psychological evaluation of wanna-be elective officials is his own idea and not that of the party. Velchev is currently the chairman of GERB‘s parliamantary group.

Mayors exist in Bulgaria who “picture themselves as sheriffs”, the MP has pointed out. He has revealed that he questioned the sanity of some politicians even before he entered his country’s political life.

Velchev stated that his colleagues have supported his idea in informal conbersations.

Bulgaria’s ruling center-right GERB party plans to be in government well ahead in the future, and cabinet plans extend beyond the end of the mandate in 2013, said Bulgarian Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov Saturday.

“We plan to be in power for a long time. That is why we are considering the effects of our policies well beyond our current mandate,” explained Djankov in an interview for Darik Radio.

The Bulgarian FinMin was elaborating on cabinet plans to relocate a number of stateagencies based in capital Sofia to other cities across the country.

Last Sunday, Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borisov first revealed that some agencies, including units of the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism, and Ministry of Agriculture, will be moved to second largest city Plovdiv.

Saturday Djankov revealed that government plans are that the entire Ministry of Agriculture be eventually relocated to Plovdiv.

Friday Djankov had revealed that cabinet also intends to move the Finance Ministry Customs Agency to the Danube city of Ruse.

In the Darik Radio interview, the Bulgaria’s FinMin explained that the relocations will cost next to nothing to the state budget, as all the target cities have the infrastructure needed to house them.

In addition, Djankov argued that the moves will create a better business environment and more job opportunities in the respective cities.

He further suggested that new museums could be housed in the Sofia buildings that are going to be freed.

www.novinite.com

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.

The planned no-confidence vote against Bulgaria’s ruling centrist-right GERB will not take place, according to Parliamentary Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva.

The no-confidence motion was submitted by Ataka and left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) on April 6 over what the two parties perceive as GERB‘s failed energy policy. At the end of March, the GERB government decided to scrap theBelene Nuclear Power Plant, a project backed by the two aforementioned parties.

On Thursday, however, Ataka decided to withdraw its signatures from the no-confidence motion. Thus, only 40 MPs, 39 lawmakers from BSP and one independent. Georgi Terziyski. The bare minimum for a no-confidence motion is 48 signatures (20% of all MPs), according to the Bulgarian constitution.

A sitting of the Bulgarian Parliament will take place on Monday as planned, but if there are no constitutional grounds for a no-confidence debate to take place, it will be canceled, Tsacheva explained on Thursday.

www.novinite.com

Bulgarian President, Rosen Plevneliev, ended fifth Saturday in the traditional diplomatic ski race in the winter resort of Bansko, organized by the Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Plevneliev arrived in Bansko as early as Friday to try the tracks and practice. He voice the ambition to win the cup, but ranked at the fifth spot, after the “eternal” winner, Slovakia’s Ambassador to Bulgaria, Karol Mistrik, triumphed in the contest for the third time in its third edition.

In the aftermath, the President joked that we would work hard to make “Mistrik’s life difficult.”

On a serious note, Plevneliev stated that in 10 years Bulgaria would turn into a very strong destination where all forms of tourism – cultural, historical, SPA, countryside, sea, and winter – will thrive. He pointed out he saw his participation in the race as a symbol of mass sport and appealed to all to benefit from Bulgaria’s beautiful mountains and resorts.

Ambassador of Germany, Matthias Hopfner, is second, followed by Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy, Dimitar Tchohadzhiev, who beat his boss Minister, Traicho Traikov. Traikov ended forth in the race.

The competition was held in the presence of ambassadors from over ten countries, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, Krasimir Velchev, and many winter sports lovers.

www.novinite.com

Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Deputy Chair of center-right ruling party GERB, who is in Brussels for a Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, has met with Wilfred Martens, President of the European People’s Party.

Tsvetanov thanked Martens, Chairman of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament Joseph Daul, and Secretary General of the European People’s Party Antonio López-Istúriz for their support during the election campaign in end-October 2011.

“Speaking on behalf of all mayors from GERB and the governing body of the party, I feel bound to express our gratitude to you in person, and to all of EPP’s senior members, for throwing your weight behind GERB‘s cause once again,” Tsvetanov said.

Tsvetanov and Martens discussed Bulgaria’s domestic affairs and the Deputy Chair of GERB dwelled extensively on the efforts made by the Bulgarian government to maintain financial stability and boost the economy.

Tsvetanov stressed yet again that Bulgaria had fulfilled all Schengen requirements and was effectively guarding the EU’s external borders better than some Schengen States.

Martens backed the decisive measures taken by the Bulgarian Cabinet to combat corruption and organized crime and praised the pace of EU Funds absorption achieved by the Borisov government.

The EPP President accepted an invitation on behalf of Prime Minister Borisov and Interior Minister Tsvetanov to visit Bulgaria.

www.novinite.com

Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers is set to present the controversial ACTA agreement to the country’s Parliament, only to see it scrapped by the MPs.

The ruling centrist-right GERB already suspended the ratification of ACTA in the national Parliament and instructed all its MEPs to vote against the international agreement.

However, oppositional Bulgarian Socialist Party MP Petar Korumbashev pointed out on Friday that that suspending does not mean a refusal to ratify the trade agreement. The MP expressed his suspicion that GERB is still on the fence about the agreement, noting that his party has declared its clear stance against it.

Koumbashev’s remark prompted Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to promise that ACTA will be introduced to the Parliament, recommending that his party’s parliamentary majority reject it.

“Economy Minister Traicho Traikov at least showed some dignity and admitted he made a mistake,” Borisov stated, referring to Traikov’s recent confession that he had misjudged the agreement. The PM further reminded that the ACTA ratification process in Bulgaria was launched by the former three-way coalition government led by the socialists.

On January 26, 2012, the Bulgarian government signed in Tokyo the international ACTA agreement, vowing to make downloading content similar to forgery of brands.

The agreement was sealed by Bulgarian ambassador to Japan Lyubomir Todorov, based on a decision by the Bulgarian cabinet taken hastily on January 11.

Transcripts from the meeting of the Council of Ministers from January 11 reveal that it had been Economy Minister, Traicho Traikov, who had made the proposal.

Anti-ACTA protests took place in 16 Bulgarian and 150 European cities in mid-February.

In the aftermath, Bulgaria’s government announced that it is halting the ratification.

www.novinite.com

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has termed his order for the repayment of bonuses received by government officials as “populist”, citing the low salaries and the huge responsibilities of public office holders.

“Bulgaria has been plagued by rampant populism as regards bonus payments. We keep thinking like a post-communist country, or even as communists. I am also part of the “we” in this case,” Borisov stated in an interview for Thursday’s morning broadcast of Nova TV.

The Prime Minister reminded that the allocations for international business travel had remained unchanged for 22 years, meaning that a Prime Minister or Minister had to rely on a sum of EUR 20-30 a day.

“This is sheer populism. Everybody who has been to Brussels knows that if you go to a cafe to have a coffee and a banitsa, this sum will not be enough,” Borisov remarked.

The Prime Minister explained that he had planned to block board participation fees as soon as center-right ruling party GERB came to power, but reminded that there were over 50 ordinances providing for different mechanisms for granting additional financial incentives.

Borisov said that he had had to put the public officials through the humiliating situation of having to repay the extra money or else face losing a job.

He went on to accuse Deputy Ministers of trying to cheat with the excuse offered by Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party.

Encouraged to return his fee of over BGN 1 M for consulting services on the Tsankov Kamak hydroelectric power plant project, Dogan advised the media to differentiate between fees and bonuses.

Borisov vowed that the bonus saga would come to an end thanks to that legal changes drafted by GERB which would increase the salaries of senior public officials in the next Cabinet.

“We shall make a law that will regulate all bonus payments and will also increase the salaries of the Prime Minister and the Ministers in the next government,” Borisov assured.

www.novinite.com

By the start of 2013 Bulgaria will have spent its entire fiscal reserve due to the policies of center-right GERB cabinet, argued former Bulgarian Minister of Finance Plamen Oresharski.

In an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio Sunday, Oresharski was critical of his successor Simeon Djankov‘s approach of spending from the reserve and failure to gather adequate revenue.

“At the start of next year, after Bulgaria pays dues on sovereign bonds, our country will no longer have any fiscal reserve,” said the ex-FinMin and current Bulgarian Socialist Party MP.

“After that, except for funds that are geared for specific purposes and limited use, Bulgaria will have at its disposal a very modest amount verging on zero,” added he.

Oresharski likened the situation that he argues is going to occur with the financial crisis that gripped Bulgaria in 1996-7.

www.novinite.com