May 17, Monday

THE HOME SCENE

"Chaotic Governance Undermines GERB's Approval Ratings" caps a report in "Troud" which runs the results of the latest GALLUP poll measuring political attitudes. Social analyst Kuncho Stoichev singles out three facts which he says can be seen as tendencies. The first fact is that the trust in the government in May was 37 per cent, and the mistrust, 48 per cent, meaning that most of the voters do not have confidence in the cabinet as a whole. The second fact concerns the approval of GERB - at the moment the approval and disapproval in the ruling party are almost level, 42 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively. Only a few months back the approval was over 50 per cent. Thirdly, trust in the Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov, is 52 per cent, which although a high percentage, shows a downturn from previous polls. According to Stoichev, the general tendency is one of hesitation among voters, which he attributes to the absence of a clear plan of the incumbents about the future.

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"Troud" interviews General Roumen Milanov, Secretary of the Security Council and advisor of the Prime Minister, who says that Bulgaria does not need a police hidden behind masks. Milanov dwells on the draft of a new national security strategy which prioritizes the security of the people, of society and the state as a whole. Milanov says that the strategy brings to the fore the financial, economic and energy security which concerns above all the members of the public.

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Social analyst Antonii Gulubov tells "Monitor" that President Georgi Purvanov behaves like a party leader and "an irresponsible political figure trying to design his own party plan". According to Gulubov, after ending his second term in office in 2011, Purvanov will not return to the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and will create a political formation of his own. This is part of the reasons for the growing tensions in the BSP, says Gulubov. The social analysts argues that what has been happening and will happen is a slow and painful process of "normalization" of the left, which will pass through the creation of new political projects, one of which will be headed by Purvanov in 2012.

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"Troud" reports that Justice Minister Margarita Popova opens Monday a public discussion of the strategy for continuing the reform in the judiciary. The participants in the discussion will pay special attention to the idea to create special courts for underage defendants, for insolvency proceedings, and for organized crime. Deputy Prosecutor General Valeri Purvanov comments that the strategy is the result of careful work and, after being complemented, can serve as a basis for the development of the judiciary in the next 10-15 years.

ECONOMY

"Sega" warns that Plan B for the rescuing of the budget is failing, too. Finance Minister Simeon Djankov admitted that the target of 900 million leva of spending cuts is not being achieved. So far the ministries have offered to reduce their costs by a total of 426 million leva. If Plan B fails to work, the state will be left with the heaviest options: to halt the planned additional payments to tobacco growers, infrastructure projects, etc., to increase some taxes, take out a foreign loan or use up the fiscal reserve under the critical minimum, says the report.

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All of the Monday newspapers write that half of the money of state-run companies are kept in one bank. A total of 408 million leva, or 48 per cent of the idle cash of state-run companies, are deposited in the Corporate Commercial Bank, according to a check-up by the Finance Ministry as at March 31. The bank with the next biggest amount of deposits of state-run companies, 80 million leva, or 9 per cent of the total, is EIBank. The biggest deposits are by companies in the energy sector.

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Chief Secretary of the Council of Ministers Rossen Zhelyazkov tells "Troud" that the administration of the Council of Ministers managed to save 500,000 leva in three months. He says that the budget of the administration for 2009 was 28.9 million leva, while in 2010 it is 24.8 million leva. In the second quarter of 2009 a total of 1,427,000 leva were spent by the administration of the previous Council of Ministers, while the figure for the like period in 2010 is 918,000 leva.

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"Is Fiscal Reserve a Holy Cow" caps a comment in "Troud" by economic expert Stefan Stoilov. He argues that the big question now is to use all possible policies and actions to lend greater stability and dynamism to the fragile and hesitant process of emerging out of the recession and restoring growth. The fiscal policy should follow this aim, he says, stressing that minimizing the budget deficit should not be Bulgaria's chief goal at the moment. Stoilov says that it is good that the cabinet has started to understand this truth. According to Stoilov, the government should not yield to the tenets of extreme neo-Liberals for whom the best solution is drastic cost cutting. Stoilov says that reducing the fiscal reserve by 1,500 to 2,000 million leva does not cause any macroeconomic or financial problems for the country, or the currency board mechanism. The reserve is accumulated in strong years to be used in hard times, he says.

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"Sega" writes that next year both the length of service period and the contributions for pensions will be increased. The stability of the pension system will mostly rely on the universal pension funds, since the only planned increase in a draft reform of the system is of these contributions. The draft is submitted for discussion to the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation ans is to be discussed at the end of the month. The first changes are expected to enter force in July next year. A new option has been officially suggested for entitlement to retirement: the pensionable age is increased to 65 years and the minimum length of service to 15 years of actual length of service.

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In an interview to "Standart News" Agriculture and Foods Minister Miroslav Naydenov dwells on the reinstatement of the Bulgarian State Standard (BDS) for foods and the planned creation of a foods agency. Naydenov says that it is difficult to reinstate rules in a matter of months when the move has been delayed for years. He speaks about opposition against returning the BDS from trade associations and producers. According to Naydenov, the best option is for the planned agency for control and safety of foods tostart to work before the reinstatement of the BDS, and to control the application of the standards. Both the consumers and the producers want the agency to start work as soon as possible, he says.

BULGARIA-EU

In an interview to "24 Chassa" Minister in charge of EU funds absorption Tomislav Donchev says that clerks will be made to pay interest out of their pockets if they delay payments of EU funding. Donchev comments that money paid out under operational programme at the moment stand at 4 per cent, which he describes as a "huge growth - at least thrice as good" compared to the same time last year. The rate of contracting of projects under the operational programmes is 30 per cent. The big task, according to Donchev, is to increase the rate of paying out of money to beneficiaries. He says that there are many encouraging signals vis-a-vis the operational programmes which are received well by the European Commission.


/BGNES/