In Brief

Bulgarian labor minister confirms gradual retirement reform

The number of years of service required for retirement will increase gradually beginning January 1, 2011, Bulgaria's Social Policy and Labor Minister, Totyu Mladenov, reconfirms Thursday. Mladenov made the announcement after a meeting with the parliamentary group of the opposition left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria, led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). The Minister explained the required number of years will go up by 1 in 2011 and with 1 more in 2012 and 2013 each to reach the planned 37 years for women (currently 34) and 40 years for men (currently 37)....  Oще!

Bulgaria ethnic turks leader unscathed by embezzlement allegations

Bulgaria ethnic Turkish leader Ahmed Dogan managed to escape prosecution over allegations that he pocketed BGN 1,5 M as a consultant of hydro projects, financed by the state budget. A meeting of the parliamentary commission for corruption fight and conflict of interests, which was to vote Thursday on sending Dogan to the judiciary, failed after two of its members surprisingly did not show up. Borislav Velikov, MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, and Nikolay Kotsev from the ruling GERB party, failed to appear at the meeting for what were said to be "personal reasons", triggering suspicions of behind-the-scene moves aimed to rescue Ahmed Dogan. ...  Oще!

Bulgaria mulls 2 anti-mafia agencies

Bulgaria is planning to create two brand new agencies to counter corruption and organized crime in order to clean its tarnished image as one of the most corrupt EU Member States. The statement was made by Bulgaria's Justice Minister, Margarita Popova, in an interview for Reuters, cited by Darik radio. The interview notes the pressure on Romania and Bulgaria coming from Brussels to deal effectively with corruption and organized crime, but reminds the EC praised Bulgaria for its will to carry out reforms in their July report on justice and home affairs through the so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). ...  Oще!

Us mission to nato political counselor kelly degnan: bulgaria exemplifies approaches for nato's new strategic concept

Interview of Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) with Kelly Degnan, a political counselor at the US Mission to NATO. Degnan gave a presentation in Sofia on NATO's new strategic concept "NATO 2020" at a briefing organized by the US Embassy and the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria. ...  Oще!

Cleves launches new luxury rental project in sofia

Cleves, a luxury Sofia apartment rentals company. has opened a brand-new 15-apartment development at Cherkovna Str in Sofia's Oborishte municipality. ...  Oще!

Bulgaria finance minister probed over classified info leak

Bulgaria's prosecutors have launched pre-trial proceedings against Finance Minister Simeon Djnakov over accusations of leaking classified information. The minister has declined to comment. The signal against Djankov was filed in February by the opposition Socialists, who accused him of disclosing a secret agreement between his predecessor, Plamen Oresharski and the governor of the Bulgarian Central Bank, BNB, Ivan Iskrov, to deposit part of the fiscal reserve in private banks. ...  Oще!

Bulgaria's revenue agency wants access to credit records

Bulgaria's revenue agents must have full access to the credit records of companies that have applied for business loans, the Director of NRA, Krasimir Stefanov, says. Stefanov spoke Thursday in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, saying it is a very urgent and pressing matter to grant this access because during the so-called "credit boom" businesses presented to banks forged information much different than the one listed in the National Revenue Agency (NRA) tax declarations. According to the NRA Director, there are scores of instances when companies with zero profits have obtained loans in the amount of thousands of hundreds of EUR. ...  Oще!

Bulgarian parliament speaker begs bulgarians for forgiveness

Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament Tsetska Tsacheva presented deep apologies to fellow Bulgarians over the saga around the scandalous amendment to the drugs law that was published this spring in the state Official Gazette without having been voted in plenary. Speaking at Thursday's plenary, when the National Assembly adopted a report recommending the referral of the case to the prosecutor, Tsacheva said that what happened is a "stain" on her and the Parliament's reputation. Tsacheva expressed especial regret at the fact that while chairing the fatal plenary sitting she did not pay enough attention to what was being read out from the tribune. ...  Oще!

Bulgarian tourists stranded in greece over hauliers strike

Thousands of tourists from Bulgaria, Russia and Serbia, who are traveling by car, remain stranded in northern Greece because of the lorry drivers strike, officials have said. "Bookings by tourists from neighboring countries have also been frozen because of the strike," the head of the Hellenic Hotels Federation, Andreas Andreadis, said in a television interview Thursday. The interview came just as the Greek government used a rare emergency order to force lorry drivers back to work after a three-day strike. ...  Oще!

Bulgarian trade representatives asked to lure foreign investors

Increase of direct foreign investments and of export are defined as the two main tasks for Bulgaria's trade attaches abroad by Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov. The Minister presented Thursday the new rules for the application process, the work and the assessment of the performance of the trade representatives and opportunities for their staff development. Traikov spoke during a meeting with economy experts and advisors, saying from now on those representatives will be appointed for a 3-year term instead of the current 1-year in order to halt the practice to bring outside people into the system, who then leave to work for the corporate business....  Oще!