Sofia, June 28 (BTA) - Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev will visit Bucharest on June 30 to attend the summit meeting of the states of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the President's press office said.
Sofia, June 28 (BTA) - "I believe that this visit would be extremely useful for the promotion of friendship and good relations between the two countries, as well as for peace and security in the Balkans and the world, " Turkish Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu told the press on his arrival in Sofia today at noon. Inonu is making an official visit to Sofia at the invitation of Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski.
"I hope that the talks with Mr Pirinski will be very useful. We have met before at international forums, but this is the first time I have visited him since he became foreign minister, " Inonu said. Pirinski told the journalists that he was greatly honoured to play host to his Turkish counterpart.
Turkish radio reported today that before his departure, Inonu told the press in Ankara that "Turkey has had good relations with its friendly neighbour Bulgaria for many years" and that "the considerable Turkish minority in Bulgaria threw a bridge of friendship between the two countries". Inonu also said that one of the subjects for discussion would be the need to restore the social rights to Turks who had emigrated from Bulgaria.
Inonu will hold talks with Foreign Minister Pirinski and will be received by President Zhelyu Zhelev, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov and Parliament Chairman Blagovest Sendov. Inonu will meet with representatives of the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee. He said he would be pleased to meet opposition MPs.
Inonu expects bilateral and regional relations and international issues to be reviewed during his high-level talks. The sides will exchange instruments of ratification of the bilateral Treaty for Friendship, Goodneighbourly Relations, Cooperation and Security signed in Ankara in May 1992.
"Our sincere intention is to translate [into practice] the full content of the agreement, so that its texts would not remain good wishes and intentions only, which presupposes direct dialogue guided by goodwill and openness, " Minister Pirinski said.
This is the third Bulgarian-Turkish treaty after the treaties of 1925 and 1975. Bilateral relations soured in the wake of the forcible assimilation campaign against ethnic Turks in Bulgaria, but a rapprochement was effected since the beginning of changes in this country. During the past four years Turkey was visited by two Bulgarian foreign ministers, Stoyan Ganev and Stanislav Daskalov; two prime ministers, Filip Dimitrov and Lyuben Berov; and by President Zhelev, while Bulgaria was visited twice by former Turkish foreign minister Hikmet Cetin and once by Turkish president Turgut Ozal.
Minister Inonu's talks will also address Turkish President Suleyman Demirel's upcoming visit to Bulgaria.
Sofia, June 28 (Ani Parmaksizyan of BTA) - Turkish Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu, who arrived on an official visit to Sofia today, discussed the relations between Bulgaria and Turkey meeting Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov and President Zhelyu Zhelev separately. Pirinski and Inonu made a review of the implementation of a protocol on the problems of the continental shelf, the Rezovska River and fighting terrorism. "It was mentioned that the protocol includes bilateral issues that should be considered and resolved the soonest possible, " Foreign Ministry Spokesman Todor Chourov said after the foreign ministers' meeting. There are no serious problems in Bulgarian-Turkish relations, which are a model to follow in the Balkans in this respect, the sides agreed. Pirinski and Inonu discussed the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller to Bulgaria - a visit both sides are looking forward to. "The date has not been set yet but the visit will be paid shortly, " Chourov said. "Mrs Ciller will visit Bulgaria before the end of the year, " Government Spokesman Nikola Baltov said after Videnov's talks with Minister Inonu.
The sides stressed the importance of the Treaty of Friendship, Good-neighbourly relations, Cooperation and Security Bulgaria and Turkey signed in 1992. The Treaty is going to enter into force upon the exchange of the ratification documents tomorrow. They considered the implementation of various communication and infrastructural projects. An agreement on the establishment of a Bulgarian-Turkish free trade zone may be concluded. Videnov and Inonu agreed that increasing the capacity of the border checkpoints would facilitate the movement of goods and capital. "The Bulgarian side expressed its readiness for close cooperation with the Turkish competent authorities in overcoming the negative consequences of illicit traffic and illicit international trade using Bulgaria as a route - the major reason Bulgaria was black-listed by the Schengen group, " Baltov said. Balkan cooperation, the desire of Bulgaria and Turkey to end the conflict in Yugoslavia quickly and European integration are the other topics PM Videnov and Minister Inonu considered.
Zhelev and Inonu discussed the forthcoming visit of Turkish President Suleyman Demirel to Bulgaria. "The summit of the countries participating in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in Bucharest on June 30, 1995 was also considered, " Presidency Spokesman Valentin Stoyanov said. President Zhelev and Foreign Minister Inonu praised the development of bilateral relations and hailed the possible implementation of infrastructural projects in the Balkans which would be to the advantage of both countries. Zhelev pointed out Bulgaria wants to maintain good relations with all its neighbours and attaches great importance to maintaining equally good relations with Turkey and Greece as NATO members.
- Sofia, June 28 (BTA) - Parliament today passed cabinet-sponsored amendments to the Environment Protection Act to facilitate debt-for-environment and debt- for-nature swaps.
The amendments provide for the setting up of a National Eco-Trust Fund. It will operate as a juristic person managing the proceeds from debt-for-environment and debt-for-nature swaps, as well as funds extended by the government and international financial institutions for environmental projects in Bulgaria. The structure and work of the fund will be regulated by the cabinet.
A National Fund for Environment Protection has already been set up under the Environment Protection Act. It collects payments by natural and juristic persons running businesses that pollute environment within the permissible levels, and fines payable by polluters for violating environmental standards.
The cabinet believes that since the funds entering the National Eco-Trust Fund are of a different origin, it should be a seperate juristic person enjoying greater independence than the structures already operating with the cabinet. Moreover, this is the desire of the donors of funds expected to enter the new Trust Fund.
Speakers stressed during today's brief debates in Parliament the relevance of the amendments to the third conference on "Environment for Europe" due to be held in Sofia in October.
- Sofia, June 28 (BTA) - In connection with a decision of the Constitutional Court, invalidating 19 clauses in the Agricultural Land Tenure Act and amending the earlier version of the legislation, and with regards to the motives stated by the Constitutional Court yesterday, according to which all regulations, which had been in force before the introduction of the said amendments, the head of the Parliament's Legal Department Emilia Droumeva announced the department's stand. According to the Parliament's Legal Department, the Constitution suspends the implementation only of acts, which have been declared anti-Consitutional. The Constitution neither provides for nor allows the restoration of legal norms, which the Parliament has already revoked. The claim that the old norms should be re-enacted contradicts the provisions of the Constitution. By registering such a statement in a decision of the Constuitutional Court the Court would interfere impermissibly in the competence of the Parliament, the statement says. According to the document, the Parliament's task and obligation is to promptly come up with operative legal framework for the relations, concerned by the decision of the Constitutional Court.
- Sofia, June 28 (BTA) - It is ever more clear that the new privatization chiefs are imposing bureaucratic obstacles to the process, "24 Chassa" writes in an extensive article. The Privatization Agency is hectically seeking opportunities to advertize abroad this country's troubled denationalization. But no one is thinking how to make inefficient industrial giants attractive to potential buyers, the author writes.
Bulgarian foreign investment legislation is liberal enough, Deputy Foreign Minister Stanimir Alexandrov says in an interview for the "Pari" daily. The foreign investor needs stable legislation and bilateral contracts guaranteeing his investment and stability is more important than preferences, Alexandrov adds.
The instruction of the Transport Ministry that CIS tourists travelling by private air carriers pay an additional USD 30 in airport fees will ruin a profitable business at the height of the season, Tsvetan Tsochev, President of the Bulgarian Tourist Chamber, says in an interview for "Standart News". In a month the number of tourists from Russia and other ex-soviet republics has decreased by one half, Tonchev said.
Bulgaria's entire tobacco industry should be placed under government protection, Spas Gelemerov, Chairman of Bulgartabak Holding's Board of Directors, says in an interview in "Douma". "The protectionist measures should not take the form of constantly rising prices, but of state subsidies to tobacco-growers and exporters, " Gelemerov says. He adds that tobacco-growing, a traditional livelihood of the ethnic Turks and some other population groups in Bulgaria, has dropped to a 70-year low.
Interbrew of Belgium will invest US$ 20 million in Bourgas Beer based in the Black Sea city of Bourgas, "Troud" and "Continent" quote Interbrew Vice President Michel Nake-Radige as telling journalists yesterday. Interbrew has a 14% market share in Bulgaria as against 30% in Hungary and in Croatia. A total of 58% of the beer is exported to Belgium; the beverage is exported to 80 countries, "Troud" says.
Experts of the Bulgarian-Libyan commission will discuss at a session tomorrow a new agreement on the employment of Bulgarian doctors, dentists and nurses in Libya, "Zemya" says. According to the daily, the draft agreement envisages that a special office of the Bulgarian National Employment Service will open in Tripoli to help Bulgarian medics continue their stint in Libya after the expiry of the original contracts. The health ministries of Bulgaria and Libya signed a framework agreement on this matter in 1994, "Zemya" recalls.
- Sofia, June 28 (BTA) - "Yesterday the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs approved a draft resolution which makes an appeal to reconsider the inclusion of Bulgaria and Romania in the European Commission's "negative list" of states subject to visa requirements and to write them off from the list, " Nikolai Kamov, chairman of the National Assembly Foreign Policy Committee and head of the National Assembly delegation for relations with the European Parliament, told reporters in the lobbies of Parliament today. The resolution says that the European Union and the two Balkan countries negotiate and implement measures for visa-free movement of individuals between the EU and the two states. "The draft resolution will be submitted for consideration to the other committees of the European Parliament and when it is passed, Bulgaria could expect some relaxation of the requirements made on its citizens travelling to Western Europe, " Kamov said.
Though the draft resolution cannot solve this country's problem arising in connection with the Schengen agreement, Kamov believes it is the first step to allowing Bulgarians and Romanians visa-free travel. The Schengen "negative list" includes all the countries whose citizens must apply for visas if they want to travel to any of the states that signed the Schengen agreement. Bulgaria is on the "negative list" because it has not concluded an agreement on visa-free travel with any of the Schengen states. About two months ago Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski presented a demarche to most West European countries calling to remove Bulgaria from the list of European countries to which visa requirements are applied. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry protested against not treating Bulgaria on an equal footing with the other countries associated with the EU in a memorandum to Hans van den Broek, EU commissioner in charge of foreign political relations, security and EU enlargement. The Schengen group states responded positively to the representations made by Bulgaria. However, the signatories to the Schengen agreement on visa-free movement of individuals demand guarantees that Bulgaria will apply measures to control emigration and the illegal migration of Bulgarian and foreign tourists passing through Bulgaria in transit. The complicated formalities Schengen visa requirements involve made the Union for Private Economic Eenterprise call on the respective European institutions to lift entry restrictions on Bulgarian businessmen and journalists.
- Moscow, June 28 (BTA) - Today in Moscow ended the second meeting of Bulgarian and Russian business circles, whose first edition was in March. The barriers which the high Russian custom duties pose to Bulgarian goods was high on the agenda in the talks between Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev and the Russian Minister of Economy Evgeni Yasin, said the Bulgarian Radio correspondent to Moscow Valeri Todorov. The same issue was discussed in the talks of Bulgarian Deputy PM with Russian Finance Minister Vladimir Panskov. According to Mr Panskov the problem is to be settled through joint ventures and investments. Mr Gechev delivered an oral message from Prime Minister Zhan Videnov to his Russian counterpart Viktor Chernomyrdin. In a special interview for the Bulgarian Radio, Deputy Prime Minister Roumen Gechev emphasized that he is convinced that these meetings of business circles will yield fruitful and positive results. "The meetings are even belated, " he said. The dramatic drop in trade between the two countries shows that enormous opportunities have been lost. "For the contacts to be restored, however, there are a number of conditions, the economic and financial stabilization of Bulgaria and Russia and the promotion of contacts at company level being the major ones, " Mr Gechev said. The second meeting of business circles from Russia and Bulgaria made it possible to outline new concrete topics and projects. "Bulgarian manufacturers will soon sense the effect of the relieved trade with Russia, " Minister Gechev said. The Bulgarian Government has outlined certain directions and projects for the Russian market, which are also prompted by immediate needs, " Mr Gechev said. "Bulgaria's economic interests are determined not on a geographical principle, but on the basis of real profit, " the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister said.
- Sofia, June 28 (BTA) - A session on the 155th anniversary of the birth and the 80th anniversary of the death of Exarch Yossif opened in Sofia today. Twenty five Bulgarian and foreign scholars are taking part in it. At the opening of the session Ilcho Dimitrov, Minister of Education, Science and Technologies, described Exarch Yossif as "a builder of the Bulgarian Church and unsurpassed diplomat in Bulgarian history." The St Kliment Ohridski University Publishiing House published Exarch Yossif's diary for the first time in Bulgaria. He made remarkable contribution not only as a church dignitary, but also as a politician and cultural figure. His lay-name was Lazar Yovchev. He was born in Kalofer (Central Bulgaria) on May 5, 1840. Exarch Yossif died in 1915. He was elected Exarch of the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church in 1877.
According to a Swedish-Dutch delegation which studied the situation of ethnic groups in the Rouen municipality (Southeastern Bulgaria), the rights of ethnic Turks in Bulgaria are neither violated nor jeopardized, the BTA correspondent in Bourgas (on the southern Black Sea coast) reported. Eighty five percent of the population in that upland area are with Turkish self-awareness. Twelve new mosques have been built there in the last four or five years alone. The foreign delegation offered its assistance in attracting investments for Rouen's light industry.
Helene Carrere d'Anchos, Deputy Chairperson of the European Parliament's committee on foreign policy, security and defence, read a lecture on the period of transition in the East European countries at the Bulgarian National Assembly. According to Mrs d'Anchos, Bulgaria is less prepared for change than the other ex-socialist countries. She expressed the European Parliament's concern about the election results in Bulgaria - one of the countries in which the successors to the former communist parties assumed power again. Today Mrs d'Anchos met the chairman of the parliamentary group of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), Yordan Sokolov, and parliamentarians of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and the Bulgarian Business Bloc (BBB). She had a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Stanimir Alexandrov too.
Parliament continued the adoption of texts of the securities, stock exchanges and investment companies bill on second reading. Texts of the administrative and territorial division bill were also adopted on second reading.
The first electronic reference book providing information about university and college education in Bulgaria and the respective establishments was press- launched today. The project, developed by Bulgarian scientists and experts of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and of the Informa Centre for the Transfer of Technologies, is part of the Open Society's programme for the Bulgarian education.
The UDF proposed the Popular Union and the MRF a new round of talks on technical cooperation among the parliamentary opposition forces. They would cooperate in nominating common mayoral candidates, controlling the printing and forwarding of ballot papers, checking electoral registers and in other technical areas. On June 16 the leaders of the three opposition forces signed a joint statement on cooperation in the local elections to be held this autumn.
Twenty five employees affiliated to the structure of the Podkrepa Labour Confederation (Podkrepa) at the Trolley-bus Transport Enterprise in Plovdiv (Southern Bulgaria) went on hunger strike in protest against a public transport programme planning to cut down the number of trolley buses from 113 to 60 and to sell rectifiers. The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (CITUB) supprts the strike.
The Supreme Court pronounced itself on a petition challenging the authority of Justice Minister Mladen Chervenyakov to order the inspection of the work of the Sofia Court Martial and ruled that the Minister of Justice has the powers to order such checks at all courts in Bulgaria, including the courts martial.
Six MPs are leaving the BBB. Seven MPs of the BBB parliamentary group (consisting of 13 members) declared they would leave the BBB parliamentary group in protest against a statement made by BBB leader George Ganchev on television last night that MP Kristiyan Krustev would join the BBB parliamentary group again; the BBB leader did not consult the group's leadership before making this statement. Kristiyan Krustev broke away from the parliamentary group several months ago because of a conflict with george Ganchev.
Prof. Chavdar Kyuranov, Chairman of the Alliance for Social Democracy (ASD, a platform in the Bulgarian Socialist Party), described yesterday's rally organized by Podkrepa and the CITUB as a serious political action. The Cabinet must consider the demands of the trade unions, the ASD leaders believe.
Speaking on Radio Free Europe, Georgi Youroukov, Charge d'Affaires of the Bulgarian Embassy in Belgrade, denied an announcement Tanjug made yesterday that Bulgaria had launched a new initiative for the lifting of UN embargo against Yugoslavia. According to Tanjug, the Bulgarian diplomat had expressed his hope the initiative would be supported by other Black Sea countries at a meeting with the Bulgarian minority in Bosilegrad, Serbia. Youroukov described the allegations as speculative and said that the only thing Bulgaria would possibly do was to insist before the United Nations for a similar step through diplomatic channels. In his opinion, the situation in Yugoslavia has grown worse and it is hardly possible to speak about lifting the embargo at the moment, RFE said.
"The National Statistical Institute (NSI) applies a world-wide accepted statistical method to monitor prices and measure inflation, " NSI Chairman Zahari Karamfilov said on national television this evening, commenting on articles by CITUB President Krustyu Petkov that appeared in "Troud" yesterday and today. "Prof. Petkov makes gross and absolutely unfounded allegations accusing the NSI of manipulating statistics about the movement of prices and inflation, " Karamfilov said. He confirmed that the NSI does not fake the statistical data and can easily prove the figures are correct.