Sega Daily

"2-in-1 Elections Crash on First Reading," "Sega" reports. "The constitutional amendment asked by the NMSS [National Movement for Surge and Stability], which would make it possible to hold the elections of European and national parliament on the same day, met with failure even at the first-reading debate. The NMSS furthermore insist that MPs who have left their parliamentary groups be dismissed from the National Assembly. The BSP [Bulgarian Socialist Party] and the MRF [Movement for Rights and Freedoms] declared that they do not like either of the proposals. The opposition backed the '2-in-1' elections but opposes the measures against party-to-party migration, suspecting that this is a blow against the breakaways of the BND [Bulgarian New Democracy]."

Monitor Daily

"I don't expect an amendment to the Constitution for '2-in-1' elections," former Constitutional Court president Nedelcho Beronov says in a "Monitor" interview. He comments that the incumbent Parliament was elected on June 25 four years ago, which means that its four-year term of office will expire on the same date this year. From then on, the President may schedule national parliamentary elections." The European Parliament elections are scheduled in all EU Member States for June 7, and we cannot move that date. The Constitution expressly provides that a new National Assembly is elected after the old one has already been dissolved. As long as there is a National Assembly, it is impossible to hold elections for a new one."

Dnevnik Daily

"2009 Elections: Politicians Will Propose, Economy Will Dispose": under this heading, "Dnevnik" comments that the debate on the acceptability and use of the various coalition formats of the next government are getting ever more heated. "What matters most, though, is whether the coalition partners will be identified before the elections, or the voters will again be surprised by a post-election coalition which is neither expected nor desired, nor natural. Coalition formats defy prediction because  that they will materialize in a different way in the European and in the national election. The unrealistic nature of these predictions, however, will be associated with the macroeconomic parameters of the election races. Politicians will be proposing, and the economy will be disposing in the 2009 elections."

Trud Daily

"Instead of alerting the prosecuting authorities about vote-buying by others, all political parties should best stop buying votes themselves and should not get the prosecuting magistracy involved in a political debate," "Troud" quotes Prosecutor General Boris Velchev as saying before Wednesday's meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council. He admitted that he was worried lest the forthcoming parliamentary and European elections be vitiated. Velchev recalled that vote-buying is not a new practice but it is already criminalized and 15-20 sentences for vote-buying were passed last year.

"Trud" asked independent MP Eleonora Nikolova, who is on the committee drafting amendments to the Prevention and Disclosure of Conflict of Interest Act, and Tihomir Bezlov, an expert in corrupt practices at the Center for the Study of Democracy, what business relations are permissible for MPs and government ministers. "There will be punishments for conflict of interest," Nikolova warns. "At the National Assembly, a subcommittee will be watching over observance of the Act, and it will accept the declarations of all senior office holders in the State. There will be special commissions in the municipalities and the ministries. I think that the most severe punishment is to remove a person from the office to which he has been elected or appointed. The first who are penalized will be an object lesson to everybody who believe that they could go on working in the old way." Bezlov is adamant that MPs should be limited to their salaries. In his opinion, the Conflict of Interest Act will affect Bulgarians' cultural disposition to use the social networks: friends and relations, for real location of public resources. "Part of the elite will probably again seek gains for themselves. Another part, however, will try to clear itself, to gain legitimacy in order to evade the risks," the expert reasons.

"Trud" reports that Interior Minister Mihail Mikov wants CCTV tapes to become admissible evidence. Mikov said that legislative amendments to this effect will be moved to Parliament within one month. Mikov and Sofia Mayor Boiko Borissov Wednesday unveiled a Schools and Kindergartens Video Surveillance Centre. The system covers 119 municipal schools and child establishments in ten of Sofia's boroughs.

"Trud" reports that Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will pay a one-day working visit to Brussels on Thursday for talks with EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The agenda supposedly includes the suspended EU funding for Bulgaria, as well as the country's desire to join as soon as possible the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II), seen as a waiting room for the adoption of the euro.

24 Chasa Daily

"24 Chasa" reports that 56 personnel memebrs were dismissed for corruption in 2008, and 192 were suspended or transferred to another position in order to distance them from a corrupting environment. The figures come from a report of the Government Commission for Counteracting Corruption, which the Council of Ministers approved on Wednesday. The performance of the Commsision was found insufficiently effective in the latest reports from the European Commission, which forced the Government to designate Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plougchieva as its chair. The Commission was so far chaired by Interior Minister Mihail Mikov. The decision was motivated by the need to upgrade the level of political commitment to suppress corruption.

"Bulgaria Gets Ready for Gas Crisis 2," "24 Chassa" reports. Ukraine has until March 7 to pay Russia for the fuel used in February. This will also be the date for which there are indications of a possible start of a sequel to the gas crisis. "We know there is a problem and we are getting ready for it," Energy Minister Peter Dimitrov said. He explained that a schedule for the allocation of fuel to users will be announced. Dimitrov added that gas continues to be injected into the Chiren storage facility as a precaution even though it is economically unprofitable. Such a step has never before been taken in winter.

"This summer the crisis will make itself rather strongly felt in Bulgaria," Prof. Ilian Mihov, who teaches macroeconomics at the France- and Singapore-based INSEAD business school, predicts in a "24 Chasa" interview. He explains that tourism is one of Bulgaria's most important export commodities, but it will shrink as a result of the crisis in the industrialized countries. Secondly, even if a recovery in the US starts in the summer, Europe will be suffering longer from the recession because measures in Western Europe take longer to get off the ground. Thirdly, the banks in Western Europe have yet to experience problems with their East European subsidiaries. "If one country suffers a major economic downturn, investors will reconsider their plans for the whole of Eastern Europe," Mihov argues.

Standart Daily

"Standart News" reports that Sofia District Heating Company Board of Directors Chairman Georgi Kadiev told the National Assembly Energy Committee that the utility suggests to cust central heating bills in Sofia by 5.8 per cent only for promptly paying users. The reversal of the nearly 19 per cent price hike for all customers, proposed by Energy Minister Peter Dimitrov, is economically unjustified, and a decision on this can be made only at the political level by the minister or by the Council of Ministers, Kadiev argued.

"Standart News" writes that five central banks of Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, have issued a joint statement voicing "concern" over the warnings and speculation circulated in the West about the risks assumed by Western banks on account of their investments in the region. This speculation, according to the financial institutions, is essentially flawed and could harm the region as well as all Europe. The item is headlined "Central Banks: 'Don't Spread Panic'."

Ñïîäåëè: Send  Ibox.bg Âúâ Facebook  Svejo