Bulgaria's finance minister, who was initially targeting rapid accession to the euro zone, has confirmed the country is in no hurry to adopt the single currency.
"We will not make any move toward the switchover in the next two years," Simeon Djankov told reporters in Vienna on Thursday.
The statement is in line with the opinion of local analysts, who have tried to tone down the cabinet's enthusiasm for adopting rapidly the common European currency, saying it makes more sense for the...
Bulgaria's Currency Board Is Super Stable
(Sofia, Jan 12) - "The currency board functioning in Bulgaria is super-stable," the monthly analysis of Raiffeissen Bank Bulgaria reads.
The experts have calculated that at the end of November 2012 the currency board's reserves amount to 15.1 billion euro, which is an increase by 2.2 million euro from a month ago.
The board's reserves have increased by 1.9 billion euro (14.4%) year-on-year, which is a surplus of about 89% to the minimum...
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has revised upwards its forecast for Bulgaria's economic growth in 2013 from 1.7% to 1.9%.
The bank cut its forecast for economic growth in October last year from 2.5% in the previous report published in May to 1.7%, citing slumping exports.
"Recovery is expected to continue to be modest in Bulgaria into 2012, due mainly to sluggish export demand. Growth in 2012 is likely to have ended up at around 1% only, with a modest forecast...
A total of 21% of the eligible voters cast their votes in Bulgaria's nuclear energy referendum on Sunday, according to data from the 100% completed parallel vote count by polling agency Alpha Research.
The agency said this meant about 1.4 million voters cast their votes in Bulgaria on Sunday; of those, 61% voted in favor of the construction of a second nuclear power plant, and 39% voted against.
The Bulgarian citizens were supposed to answer "yes" or "no" to the following question:...
PES and Bulgarian Socialist Party chair Sergey Stanishev should resign over the outcome of Sunday's referendum on nuclear energy in Bulgaria, stated Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov.
As results from exit polls come in, political leaders have engaged in a heated battle of interpretations on the outcome.
Some 60% of ballots cast answered positively to the referendum question - whether Bulgaria needs a new NPP - the position supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
The turnout is...
The Bulgarian government should impose a moratorium on the Belene NPP project until an overall energy strategy is drafted, according to Meglena Kuneva, former EU Commissioner and leader of the Bulgaria for Citizens party.
She says that the fact that the center-right ruling party GERB and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) have reached consensus on the matter raises suspicion.
Kuneva suggests that the actual goal of the referendum is to tie the next government down to a...
The right-wing Blue Coalition has requested from Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, to ask the Constitutional Court to elaborate on the upcoming referendum on the fate of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project.
The Blues insist the Court must have a say in explaining the law before the Parliament passes the decision, the Bulgarian online news agency Dnevnik reports.
According to the law, the Constitutional Court must act on the request of at least...
The upcoming referendum on the fate of Bulgaria's Belene Nuclear Power project is a provocation made by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), according to the right-wing Blue Coalition.
"In our opinion, the referendum is a deliberate provocation made by BSP," Blue Coalition co-chair Martin Dimitrov told reporters on Friday. According to Dimitrov, the left wingers are fully aware that the question they have posed for the referendum is anti-constitutional.
As the Blue Coalition has pointed...
Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev is holding Friday political consultations for the upcoming referendum on the fate of the project to build a second Nuclear Power Plant in the Danube town of Belene.
Plevneliev is convinced that the referendum is a test for democracy and must be held.
The consultations will include parliamentary represented political parties in an attempt to reach consensus on the wording of the question to be asked.
They will be held in the Presidential building,...
The upcoming referendum on the fate of Bulgaria's Belene nuclear power plant will prove that the project is pointless, according to Interior Minister Tsvetan Tstevatov.
On Friday, Tsvetanov reiterated that the former socialist-led three-way coalition would have fulfilled the project if it was favorable for Bulgaria.
"They had the executive power, they had the legislative power, they had the presidential power...but they knew what the dangers were," he told reporters, referring to the...
The vote in the January 27, 2013, national referendum on development of atomic energy in Bulgaria will be organized in the same manner as any election.
The spokesperson of the Central Electoral Commission, CEC, Bisser Troyanov, explained at a press conference that the referendum will be held in adherence to the Election Code since the Act for Direct Participation of Citizens in the Rule of the State and in Local Rule was too "scarce" without any detailed regulations.
The voters will...
Bulgaria will "logically" go for building a seventh reactor at its existing NPP in Kozloduy, Bulgarian Economy Minister Delyan Dobrev commented Sunday on the results of the nation's referendum on the construction of a second nuclear plant.
Bulgaria's referendum, which had a voter turnout of only 22%, with 61% voting in favor of the construction of a second nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, while 39% voted against, implicitly referred to the project for the construction of the 2000-MW Belene...
Valentin Nikolov, CEO of the Kozloduy NPP, has said that a seventh unit at the plant could be functional by 2020 or 2022.
In a Monday interview for Nova TV, he suggested that the project for building a seventh unit at the nuclear power plant in Kozloduy had already attracted serious investor interest but he did not disclose details.
He suggested that there was already investor interest in the project but did not disclose details.
"In 20 years' time, when the exploitation deadline of...
Bulgaria's Education Minister, Sergey Ignatov, has resigned from the post.
Ignatov has submitted his resignation on the request of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, the Cabinet's press office informs Monday.
The news broke just hours after the resignation of the manager of Bulgaria's embattled and scandal-ridden Scientific Research Fund, Hristo Petrov.
Petrov's resignation was also immediately accepted by Borisov.
The manager deposited his resignation after it emerged that a probe of...
Bulgaria's new Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov will make his first visit to Brussels accompanied by Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and Justice Minister Diana Kovacheva.
Tsatsarov will meet with EC Secretary-General Catherine Day and OLAF Director General Giovanni Kessler on January 29, according to the press office of Bulgaria's prosecuting authority.
Meanwhile, Tsvetanov will take part in a high-level international conference on countering violent extremism organized by Home...
Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, is proposing to the Cabinet to dismiss from the post the Chairman of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation, DKEVR, Angel Semerdzhiev.
The proposal is connected with the delay and lack of a number of administrative acts from the Electricity and Gas Directives, requested by the European Commission.
It was reported last Thursday that EC is referring Bulgaria, Estonia and the United Kingdom to the Court of Justice of the European Union...
Valentin Nikolov, CEO of the Kozloduy NPP, has said that a seventh unit at the plant could be functional by 2020 or 2022.
In a Monday interview for Nova TV, he suggested that the project for building a seventh unit at the nuclear power plant in Kozloduy had already attracted serious investor interest but he did not disclose details.
He suggested that there was already investor interest in the project but did not disclose details.
"In 20 years' time, when the exploitation deadline of...
A controversial referendum on whether to build a new nuclear power plant in Bulgaria appears to have been invalidated by low turnout.
An exit poll put turnout at around 20% - far below the 60% required for the poll, which was called on the basis of an opposition petition.
The opposition Socialists want the centre-right government to reverse its decision not to build the plant.
The poll has been seen as a barometer for elections later this year.
It was also important as a measure of...
Bulgaria's next referendum should be on an important environmental topic, according to Finance Minister Simeon Djankov.
In a Monday interview for Nova TV, he suggested that the next referendum could involve the statute of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
Djankov informed that he had abstained from voting at the January 27 nuclear referendum because the issue required expert knowledge and could not be sold through a plebiscite.
He claimed that the only good thing about Sunday's referendum...
Bulgaria's Parliament has adopted at first reading amendments to the Energy Efficiency Act.
The amendments initiated by the government were passed Friday with 79 votes in favor, 3 against, and 14 abstainees, according to reports of the Focus news agency.
The amendments envisage drafting a national plan for increasing the number of nearly zero-energy buildings and the introduction of energy performance certificates of buildings and building components.
During the discussion of the bill,...
Another euro-pegged government defending an overvalued exchange rate bites the dust, a reminder that the underlying economic and social disaster across the Europe's Arc of Depression is still getting worse.
Bulgarian prime minister Boiko Borisov resigned Wednesday morning after days of mass protests against austerity across the country.
"I will not participate in a government under which police are beating people. Every drop of blood is a shame for us," he said. "Our power was handed to...
Around 500 members of the Anti-mafia civic association are protesting in front of the President's Office in Sofia, prior to the anticipated official statement of Rosen Plevneliev on the situation in the country in the aftermath of the collective resignation of the government.
According to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), the people are voicing their discontent with the judiciary, saying that the head of state is currently the only guarantor of statehood in the...
The European Union's Agriculture Ministers have gathered in Brussels for talks that are focused on the growing horsemeat scandal in Europe.
Authorities across Europe have started doing random DNA checks after traces of horse meat recently turned up in frozen supermarket meals such as burgers and lasagna.
The scandal erupted last month when horsemeat was found in some beef meals and burgers in the UK and Ireland.
Since then, supermarkets across Europe have had to withdraw affected...
The Bulgarian Parliament will hold an emergency sitting Tuesday to decide on the fate of the project to build a second Nuclear Power Plant in the Danube town of Belene.
The reason for the above are the results of the January 27 referendum on the development of nuclear energy in Bulgaria through the construction of a new nuclear power plant, which showed that the issue would be conclusively decided by Bulgaria's Parliament.
Under the law, the recent referendum results impose for the Belene...
Clashes with the police marked Sunday the protest rally in Bulgaria's Black Sea city of Varna.
Bulgarians across the country staged once again demonstrations against high utility bills, monopolies, poverty, economic stagnation, corruption, and the political model of ruling the country after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989.
The rallies, however, did not bring together as many people as previous weekend marches.
The largest one was once again held in Varna where 2 000 (compared...
The Bulgarian government will within 10 days appoint an international auditor to review the country's energy sector, stated caretaker Minister of Regional Development Ekaterina Zaharieva.
"We need a full financial analysis of everyone in the energy sector. We will work in full cooperation with the European Commissions, so that no doubts be thrown on the final report," said Zaharieva.
The minister added that this would bring full transparency in the sector, something requested by numerous...
Bulgaria is fully committed to developing its nuclear energy sector, stated PM Boyko Borisov at a foreign investment forum held in Sofia Tuesday.
In the past year or so, there has been an ongoing uncertainty how far Borisov's center-right GERB cabinet will further the project for the construction of a second NPP at Belene, contracted with Russian Atomstroyexport.
"If we give up on nuclear energy, we will have to face the fact that our neighbors such as Turkey will not have done the same...
Bulgaria might chose to press for short-term contracts for natural gas delivery with Russian giant Gazprom after 2012, stated vice-Minister of Energy Mariy Kosev Tuesday.
Bulgaria's contracts with Gazprom expire end of 2012 and the Russian company has until end of June to specify terms for a possible long-term extension.
"Should the conditions for a long-term contract that Gazprom formulates this summer prove to be unfavorable for Bulgaria, we will be requesting short-term contracts,"...
In the first quarter of 2011, the newly built residential buildings in Bulgaria were 601, according to the preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute, NSI, released Tuesday.
Compared to the same quarter of 2010, the number of these buildings increased by 16.7%, but the number newly built units in them fell by 5.3% to 3 109.
The largest number of residential buildings and dwellings has been built in Varna - 103 buildings with 564 units in them. Burgas is second with 94...
In the period January - March 2011 Bulgarian exports to non-EU countries increased by 55.9% year on year.
The data was released by the National Statistics Institute Tuesday.
In the first quarter of 2011, the exports amounted to BGN 3.7 B.
The main trade partners of Bulgaria were Turkey, Russia, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and China, forming 49.1% of the total exports to non-EU countries.
The exports to South Africa, India, Croatia and the Ukraine increased...
Bulgaria plans to privatize the ADIS real estate agency that manages the properties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the country.
This was announced Sunday by Bulgarian Privatization Agency chief Emil Karanikolov for the Bulgarian National Radio.
"We are planning to restructure ADIS and privatize it," said Karanikolov, adding that other state companies are also planned for privatization, without naming them.
The ADIS real estate agency rents out the many diplomatic properties...
The much-anticipated EU-sponsored Nabucco gas transit pipeline will be delayed by two years, the Nabucco consortium has announced raised doubts of increasing uncertainty about the project.
Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH has pushed back the start of construction of its EUR 7.9 B pipeline to carry Caspian natural gas to Europe to 2013; thus, Nabucco is now expected to start operations in 2017 instead of 2015, as previously expected, the company said in a statement.
"The timeline...
Bulgaria's newly adopted Renewable Energy Act contradicts the Constitution and EU law, and will shatter the country's energy future, according to the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association.
The Bulgarian Wind Energy Association issued Wednesday a devastatingly critical statement on the highly controversial law, whose adoption had been anticipated eagerly by hundreds of local and foreign investors only to see their hopes for facilitated investments dampened.
"We are highly disappointed with the...
Bulgaria's Cabinet is taking steps in order to privatize the freight services of the state railway company BDZ, according to Vladimir Vladimirov, chair of the Board of Directors of the BDZ Holding.
Speaking at a railway transport forum in Sofia Wednesday, Vladimirov said the privatization of the freight and cargo services is part of the plan to restructure the notoriously troubled state railways, and will allow for improvements by private investors that the state can hardly ever carry...
Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI), the electronics manufacturing services unit of Philippines-based company Ayala, is buying out EPIQ NV's assets in Bulgaria, Mexico, and the Czech Republic.
Ayala's IMI is buying the three EPIQ facilities for an estimated EUR 43 M in total.
In a statement, cited by ABS-CBN News, IMI said it would pay in cash and 200 million new common shares representing approximately 12% of the company after the transaction.
IMI said the acquisition, which is...
Two of the cars of the Chinese motor company Great Wall to be made in the Bulgarian city of Lovech made their debut, the site "Automedia.bg" informs.
The models Hover and Steed were shown for the first time over the weekend during the first round of the Bulgarian close-circuit race "Pista Litex." They were used as official automobiles of the race.
The site reports the two vehicles have generated very strong interest among the audience. This has also been the first time when the company...
Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, has asked for guarantees from Russia for enough fuels for the country's market amidst reports that the Federation is halting oil export.
On Sunday, on the grounds of an unprecedented global fuels crisis, Russia stopped exporting oil products with Russian media reporting that fuels export tax has gone up on May 1 by 44% to reach USD 408 per ton. With the measure, the Russian government aims at making oil products export less...
The manager of Bulgaria's sole nuclear power plant Kozloduy has been threatened with being "knocked off" unless he keeps quiet about an incident on the first day of March in 2006, according to fresh diplomatic cables of the US embassy in Sofia, revealed on WikiLeaks.
The cables, published by the site for investigative journalism www.bivol.bg, are entitled "Nuclear power incident highlights Bulgaria's pre-accession jitters" and were sent on May 19, 2006.
Authorities on March 1 discovered...
Korea's КТ&G, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris and a few financial investors have declared interest in the privatization of Bulgaria's state cigarette producer Bulgartabac Holding, according to the consultant of the deal.
A majority stake - 79,83% - in Bulgaria's state cigarette producer Bulgartabac Holding, whose management has been harshly criticized in recent years, was put on sale on Tuesday after years of procrastination.
The long-delayed procedure will be...
The demand for gas in Europe has marked new records, according to an announcement by Russian gas giant Gazprom.
"The European gas marked is breaking all records. During this April Gazprom will have to fulfill deliveries that are larger than those for some winter months," stated company CEO Alexei Miller.
The Gazprom CEO added that he expects those records to be broken again within 2011, according to Russian agency RIA Novosti.
The Russian company expects December long-term contract...
The Bulgarian Belene NPP will surely be constructed, the Russian Ambassador to the Balkan country, Yuriy Isakov, declared Saturday.
He was positive that the project is safe and financially rational.
"I am 100% sure that Belene NPP will be constructed. The project is beneficial for Bulgaria, Russia and Europe. It will provide clean, cheap and stable energy, that is why I am so enthusiastic. We are absolutely calm," Isakov told the Russian NTV, according to the Bulgarian 24 chasa...
The Sofia cigarette factory of Bulgaria's still state-owned tobacco giant Bulgartabac has registered a substantial growth in exports.
Sofia BT's export grew by 38.2% in the first quarter of 2011 year-on-year, according to the financial data of the company published on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.
In the first three months of 2011, the total amount of cigarettes the country sold in Bulgaria and abroad grew by 58% y/y to reach 1.94 billion pieces. The share of the exported produce declined...
Bulgaria's Parliament has adopted a controversial draft of the long-anticipated Renewable Energy Act that seems to be designed to reign in the staggering growth of solar and wind energy projects.
Until now, the state was obliged to purchase electricity produced from renewable energy generators at high, fixed prices, which has led to a jump in declared investments totaling over 6 000 – a capacity surpassing that of the national grid.
According to the new law, long-termed fixed prices of...
Bulgaria faces being taken to arbitration by the Russian contractor Rosatom over the nuclear plant project in Belene as it is likely to miss the July 1 deadline for signing a final agreement for its construction.
Bulgaria has committed to sign an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for building a nuclear power plant at Belene, Russian Komersant newspaper reported, citing representatives of state-owned Rosatom Corp.
If the contract is not signed by July 1, Bulgaria...
Bulgarian IT companies and research and development organizations attracted a total of EUR 4 M in EU funding for IT projects in 2010, Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport and ITC announced.
While the sum is not impressive in absolute terms, it is double the EU money won by the Bulgarian IT sector in 2009, the ministry data shows.
Thus, Bulgarian scientific institutes and private IT companies got a total of EUR 3.2 M for projects under the Seventh Framework Program, with additional EUR 651 530...
Bulgaria's Environment Ministry made BGN 2.259 M in 2010 from the much celebrated concessions of mineral water sources around the country.
The modest 2010 revenues came from the 26 concessions of a total of 40 mineral water springs amidst public debate on the use of Bulgaria's substantial mineral water resources.
Various experts and state and municipal officials have been pointing to their untapped potential as a source of wealth for many poor Bulgarian municipalities.
In April 2010,...
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