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News from Bulgaria, 96-06-27Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Embassy of Bulgaria <bulgaria@access1.digex.net>EMBASSY OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY27 June, 1996CONTENTS
[01] BULGARIAN REPRESENTATIVE'S STATEMENT AT ECOSOC MEETING ON NARCOTICSSofia, June 26 (BTA) - Bulgaria's representative at the ECOSOC meeting on cooperation in fighting narcotics, Deputy Foreign Minister Irina Bokova, made a statement stressing the importance of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in mobilizing the international community in its efforts to promote development in the social and economic area and to cope with the problems of illicit activities, including drug abuse and its social effects, BTA was told by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry's Information department.Mrs Bokova said that the problem of narcotics was especially painful for the countries in transition, Bulgaria included. She emphasized the role of the UN conventions on narcotics control as an instrument for efficient actions on national and international level. "Bulgaria has acceded all the three UN conventions concerning narcotics and already has a national drug control system," Deputy Foreign Minister Bokova said. She added that the forthcoming meeting of Balkan foreign ministers in Sofia, held on Bulgaria's initiative, would consider Balkan regional cooperation in fighting drug abuse. During her working visit to New York, Mrs Bokova met the chairman of the UN committee of sanctions against Iraq, Tono Eitel, and UN Under Secretary General for Public Information Samir Sanbar. [02] CARL BILDT TO ATTEND SOFIA FOREIGN MINISTERS' MEETING, JULY 6 AND 7Sofia, June 26 (BTA) - The High Representative of the Council of the European Union for Implementation of the Peace Agreement on Bosnia-Herzegovina Carl Bildt has confirmed his participation in the South East European Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Sofia on July 6 and 7, 1996. All invitees to the meeting in Sofia have sent replies, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Pantelei Karasimeonov told a regular news briefing today.[03] ON LANGUAGE DISPUTE WITH MACEDONIASofia, June 26 (BTA) - "The language problem is an issue in the Bulgarian-Macedonian relations," the head of "Human Rights" Department with the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Sotirov told a news conference today. He recalled that 23 bilateral agreements have been prepared, but not signed yet over a number of essential differences between the proposals of Sofia and of Skopje.Mr Sotirov said that Bulgaria is ready to accept any compromise proposals made by Macedonia, such that would help develop the relations. "We believe that Bulgaria has travelled its part of the road and that both countries should take efforts to overcome the existing differences," Mr Sotirov said and voiced hope that an expert group from Macedonia will visit Bulgaria in the nearest future to seek opportunities for developing bilateral contacts. While answering questions from MPs, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov recently recalled that a problem for the establishment of the legal framework of bilateral relations with Macedonia is its requirement to specify explicitly in the agreements that they have been signed in Bulgarian and in Macedonian languages. "Bulgaria cannot accept the theory about the existence of a Macedonian language as an attribute to a Macedonian nation and a Macedonian minority", the Prime Minister also said. He emphasized that the language dispute with Macedonia should not hamper the bilateral relations and added that Bulgaria has proposed a number of compromise alternatives, but the Macedonian party "has not been flexible enough." [04] PM VIDENOV ATTENDS PAPANDREOU'S FUNERALAthens, June 26 (BTA special correspondent Nikolai Kostov) - "We are all aware in Bulgaria of the loss of a good friend, outstanding politician and a man who contributed a lot to the promotion of Balkan cooperation and whom we would very much need now that the all- Balkan process is resumed," Bulgarian Prime Minister Zhan Videnov said. Today Videnov arrived in Athens to attend the funeral of Greece's former prime minister Andreas Papandreou. In Athens the Bulgarian Prime Minister met his Greek counterpart Costis Simitis, Greek politicians and leaders of other Balkan and European countries."Though very sad, today's event still strengthens the understanding that the Balkans are an integral part of Europe and that Balkan politicians are up to the high European standards," Prime Minister Videnov stated. Bulgaria will continue the life work of the great Greek politician Andreas Papandreou by participating actively in the reactivation of the Balkan cooperation in the context of the Europe-wide integration, Videnov said. [05] AGREEMENT TO COMBAT CRIMESofia, June 26 (BTA) - The Ministers of the Interior Nikolay Dobrev and Justice Mladen Chervenyakov, the President of the Supreme Court Roumen Yankov, the Director of the National Investigative Service Boyko Rashkov and Prosecutor General Ivan Tatarchev signed an agreement yesterday, the Government press office announced. It details joint action in the development of a national crime prevention and control programme, recently agreed to by the Government, Parliament and the Supreme Judicial Council.The agreement provides for the establishment of a commission to manage an integrated information system for crime control (IISCC). The commission will include deputies of the heads of the Interior and Justice Ministries, the National Investigative Service, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Supreme Court. It will control units engaged in the establishment of the IISCC and departmental systems linked to the IISCC and review and approve programmes, plans, proposals and stages in building the system. The agreement provides for setting up an expert group to take part in the establishment of the IISCC. The group includes experts from prosecutors' offices, courts, investigative services and the Ministries of Justice and the Interior. The group will take part in the development of the IISCC project. It will promote the views of the respective departments in the course of establishment of the IISCC, resolve problems along the way and develop documentation. [06] PARLIAMENT RAISES EXCISE DUTIESSofia, June 26 (BTA) - Parliament today amended the Excise Duties Act, raising excise duties. It changed over from fixed to ad valorem duties for beer, wine, alcoholic beverages and tobacco. According to Popular Union MP Ventseslav Dimitrov, the ad valorem rates are a step backward and may facilitate tax evasion. The Government, which sponsored the amendments, said that the changes were needed "as inflation is eating up excise duty revenues." (Inflation was 33.4% in 1995, the National Statistical Institute calculated).Parliament approved the following rates: 15% for beer (down from the government-sponsored 20%), 22% for wine (up from the government-proposed 20%), 50% for spirits (same as the government figure) and 60% for tobacco (20% up from the government figure). Excise duties should not be less than 1 lev per 1% volume for wines, and 2.5 leva per 1% volume for spirits. The changes will take force on July 1. [07] ORGANIC FARMING SHOULD BE PART OF AGRARIAN REFORMSofia, June 26 (BTA) - Organic farming should become a component of the national farm policy and be promoted parallel with the reform in agriculture. This is the way for Bulgaria to meet the standards set by the European and world markets of farm goods. These were the conclusions drawn by the participants in a two-day conference on reforms and environment policy in agriculture which opened here today. The forum was organized by the Prospects Foundation and the All-Bulgarian Society of Organic Farming with the financial assistance of the Development of Civil Society Foundation and the Federation of the Scientific and Technical Unions.Bulgaria has soils, favourable climatic conditions and genetic resources which can be used for the purposes of organic farming, according to experts. Some 35,000 hectares of land were polluted with heavy metals and other substances= This accounts for around one percent of the total farm land, the participants were told. The organizers of the conference said that several projects closely related to the development of organic farming and financed by the PHARE program were carried out. However, organic farming is not yet practised on a mass scale here, they noted. Tomorrow the conference is expected to close with the adoption of a letter to the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Forests insisting on the drafting of an organic farming act. [08] BANKERS DISCUSS INTEGRATION WITH E.U.Sofia, June 26 (BTA) - "In theory, with the now operating National Bank of Bulgaria Act, we could immediately accede to the Maastricht Treaty, "Lyubomir Filipov, Governor of the National Bank of Bulgaria (BNB), told bank experts today. "In practice, though, the BNB activities are quite restricted due to the decapitalization of lending institution and the burden of the internal and external debt," Mr Filipov said at the opening of a three-day international conference on "The Restructuring of Banking - a Step towadrds integration with the European Union"."The central bank formulates and implements the national monetary policy independently of the Government, provides only secured refunding to commercial banks and buys government securities," the BNB Governor said. "By law, the BNB is forbidden to finance the Government except by making three-month advances to it," he recalled. "The major reason for the destabilization of banking are the disequilibria in Bulgaria's economy," Deputy Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev said in his address to the participants in the conference. He assured them that the decision to close or bar the access of money-losing enterprises to bank loans was final. "The financial system could not sustain the pressure of 1996 without this step," Mr Gechev said. In his view, the BNB and the Cabinet should coordinate all measures applied. "We cannot do without external financing in 1996 and 1997, that is why we expect that the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund will send us an answer in the affirmative after its meeting on July 12," Mr Gechev said. He had been told by Johannes A. H. de Beaufort Wijndholds, IMF Executive Director and Head of Netherlands Constituency Group, that the loan arrangements with Bulgaria would be approved. [09] SUSPENSORY VETO ON PROFITS TAX ACTSofia, June 26 (BTA) - President Zhelyu Zhelev has returned to Parliament for further deliberation the Cabinet-sponsored Act on Profits and Juristic Persons' Income Tax and on Contributions from Profits to Municipalities. The Act sets the rate of profits tax at 26 per cent for taxable profit not exceeding 2 million leva and at 36 per cent for taxable profit exceeding this amount. Taxpayers will also contribute 6.5 per cent of their profits to the municipalities. The President believes that the Act should provide for differential approach to the extension of tax relief. In his view, a number of provisions in the Act do not offer incentives to the development of economic agents, especially in medium and small private business, but rather perpetuate a policy of stemming economic activity in Bulgaria.[10] BULGARIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE PRESIDENT PROTESTS TIGHT US VISASSofia, June 26 (BTA) - An address by President of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) and member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Ivan Slavkov was circulated today in connection with the "restrictive and excruciating procedure imposed by the Embassy of the United States in Bulgaria on Bulgarians who want to attend the Olympic Games in Atlanta." The address says that with the assistance of BOC a number of Bulgarian fans have bought tickets for the sports events in Atlanta, but only a small part of them have received visas so far. The address of Slavkov, who is heading the Bulgarian Olympic Delegation, to the IOC's Executive Committee, the organizational committee of the Olympic Games in Atlanta and the US National Olympic Committee says that "the derogation of the moral and human dignity of the Bulgarians, who wish to attend the Olympic Games, is an act which contradicts the principles and the ideas of the International Olympic movement."[11] BULGARIA, ITALY SIGN ACCORDS ON ITALIAN LANGUAGE SCHOOLSofia, June 26 (BTA) - Bulgarian Culture Minister Ivan Marazov and Italian Ambassador to Bulgaria Stefano Rastrelli signed an agreement on recognizing the secondary education certificates issued by the National Education Complex of Culture with an Italian Language School in Gorna Banya, a Sofia borough. Under the agreement, the Italian universities will not treat the graduates of the Italian Language School in Gorna Banya as foreigners and they will not have to take compulsory examinations in Italian. "The agreement will enhance the presence of Italian culture in Bulgaria," Minister Marazov said. Ambassador Rastrelli expressed his hope that the two countries would sign a cultural agreement soon.Set up in 1976 as a national school of culture, the establishment was granted its present status in 1992. The first graduates of the Italian Language School will receive their certificates of secondary education this Friday. The certificates will be handed to them by Ambassador Rastrelli and Italian actor Michele Placcido who is shooting a film in Bulgaria. [12] SUPREME JUDICIAL COUNCIL ELECTS HEADS OF TWO COURTSSofia, June 26 (BTA) - The Supreme Judicial Council met today to elect presidents of the yet unconstituted Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court. Justice Minister Mladen Chervenyakov, who by law chairs the Supreme Judicial Council in a non-voting capacity, challenged the validity of the election and described the meeting as a "farce prompted by political considerations."The incumbent President of the Supreme Court Roumen Yankov was elected President of the Supreme Court of Cassation by 18 votes in favour and none against. Incumbent Deputy Prosecutor General Vladislav Slavov, Spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council, was elected President of the Supreme Administrative Court by 14 votes in favour. Twenty-one of the 25 members of the Supreme Judicial Council took part in the vote by secret ballot, said Mihail Daskalov, member of the Council. Today or tomorrow the Supreme Judicial Council will transmit its decision to President Zhelyu Zhelev who will decide whether to decree the appointment of the presidents of the two supreme courts as elected by the Council, said Prosecutor General Ivan Tatarchev. The elections were held after Mr Chervenyakov left the chair and the room and announced he had declared the meeting closed. "What is going on exceeds all normal ways of evaluating candidates," he told reporters. The Minister added that the rules of procedure of the Council, under which it should appoint a commission to consider the candidates, have been ignored. Mr Tatarchev, Mr Slavov and Mr Yankov said that the Supreme Judicial Council procedure had not been disrupted and the election had been valid. According to Mr Slavov the appointment of a commission for consideration of the candidates is a possibility and not as a mandatory requirement. The Constitution and the Judiciary Act, which introduced a three-instance system of administration of justice, regulate the functions of two highest courts of the land. Their presidents are irremovable during a seven-year term of office for which they are elected by the Supreme Judicial Council. The two are ex officio members of the Council. The second-instance appellate courts, also provided for by the Constitution and the Act, have not been established yet, either. Under the current two-instance system, the Supreme Court combines the competencies of the Supreme Court of Cassation, which hears civil and criminal appeals, and of the Supreme Administrative Court, which is the last resort for challenges to the lawfulness of administrative acts of the Council of Ministers and individual ministers. Mr Yankov joined the Supreme Judicial Council in 1994 by right when he succeeded Ivan Grigorov as President of the Supreme Court. Mr Slavov was elected member of the Council in 1992 by the 36th National Assembly in which the now opposition Union of Democratic Forces then held a majority. The Supreme Judicial Council opened a procedure for the election of presidents of the two supreme courts at its previous meeting last Wednesday. "The new courts will operate under the effective procedural laws, and the lack of appellate courts is no problem," Mr Slavov then said. A week ago Mr Chervenyakov said that the two supreme courts will not go into operation before the passage of the required procedural laws and before they are properly funded from the judiciary budget for this year. He does not think this is the start of a legal reform but rather "an attempt to push definite cadres of a definite political force or serving definite interests." Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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