 |
|
|
This version of Europe Gateway is outdated since April 25, 2014.
 |
14-11-2008 • News & Events
13 November 2008 – Reporters without borders.
Reporters Without Borders is dismayed that former interior minister Rumen Petkov publicly insulted journalist Jurgen
Roth and called for violence against him on 11 November, less than a month after Ognyan Stefanov, the editor of the news
website Frognews, was seriously injured in a murder attempt.
“We are outraged by...
|
 |
13-11-2008 • News & Events
By Doreen Carvajal, International Herald Tribune.
When the white-haired coroner of Bulgaria's capital died hanging from the jungle gym of a placid city playground,
he left behind a series of what his longtime staff considered cryptic clues.
These forensic examiners balked at the horror of preparing an autopsy of their former teacher, Stoycho Radanov. At the
time of his...
|
 |
13-11-2008 • News & Events
Friday, November 14, at 10 a.m. (Bulgarian time, 9.00 a.m. CET), Gateway Europe invites all readers to an online
discussion with Mr. John Bell, Head of European Commissioner Meglena Kuneva's Cabinet responsible for Consumer
Protection.
Through our web-platform http://chat.europe.bg(http://chat.europe.bg) anyone can participate in the upcoming
discussion with questions,...
|
 |
10-11-2008 • News & Events
On Monday 10 November, the EU's accountants - the European Court of Auditors (ECA) - are expected to refuse to sign
off the EU's accounts for the 14th year in a row. This is due to irregularities in the budget owing to fraud and
mismanagement.
In September, the EU Commissioner for Audit, Siim Kallas, admitted there were "real and unquestioned" weaknesses in the
EU's...
|
 |
10-11-2008 • News & Events
The European Commission will announce its final decision about the possible freeze of 652000 euros from ISPA, offered by
Bulgaria after it is acquainted with the documents on the matter. Dennis Abbott, spokesman for Commissioner for Regional
Policy Danuta Hübner said for Darik Radio.
Deputy Prime Minister Plugchieva proposed that 652 thousand euros for technical aid on...
|
 |
10-11-2008 • News & Events
The deputy prime minister for European funding Meglena Plugchieva stated that she and the Minister of Finance Plamen
Oresharski have taken measures to strengthen the capacity of the central audit body at the Ministry of Finance. Because
of the weak link there the EC returned the operational programmes for conformity evaluation with the Ministry of Labour
and Social Policy and the...
|
 |
07-11-2008 • News & Events
National protest of grain-producers is still in progress in Sofia because national additional payments have not been
included in the expenditure fund for Budget 2009. "Those are the obligatory payments which all European farmers receive
as a part of the Common Agricultural policy in the EU. We insist that funds for supporting grain-production be provided
for in 2009 Budget",...
|
 |
06-11-2008 • News & Events
Five foreign laws firms made complaints to the European commission that Bulgaria breached the EU legislation. What
they demanded is the European commission to insist on the harmonization of the Bulgarian legislation with the EU acquis.
The grounds for the complaint is the decision of the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) to impose a
150 000 BGN fine on four...
|
 |
04-11-2008 • News & Events
Poor quality of the administrative capacity, comparatively weak audit bodies and insufficient provision of information
systems - those are the main weak points of Bulgaria in the usage of EU funding according to Commissioner for Regional
Policy Danuta Hübner
, BGNES reported from Brussels.
Commissioner Hübner pointed out that the Commission was contented with the...
|
 |
04-11-2008 • News & Events
The representatives of Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) in Sofia City Council will demand the resignation of Mayor Boyko
Borisov in connection with the scandal with the so called "briefing" of the deputy mayor on transport Velizar Stoilov
who was removed yesterday.
GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) municipal councilor Radoslav Toshev expressed his confidence,...
|
 |
03-11-2008 • News & Events
Sega Newspaper: Brussels may restore for Bulgaria the control mechanism over EU funding which is usually put into
practice in the case of candidate countries, sources from the EU Parliament informed Sega. The mechanism foresees for
the projects to be approved in advance by the European Commission (EC). Full members apply a different mechanism in
which control is delegated to...
|
 |
02-11-2008 • News & Events
Analysis in the International Herald Tribune
By Stephen Castle, IHT
Monday, October 27, 2008
BRUSSELS: When Bulgaria joined the European Union last year, this was supposed to mark the start of an ambitious drive
to modernize the former Soviet bloc country and bring it finally into the European political mainstream.
Twenty-two months later, the Bulgarian government has only a...
|
 |
31-10-2008 • News & Events
173 extra employees will be hired for faster inspection of projects by agricultural producers applying for European
funding, Minister Valeri Tsvetanov informed after a session of the Public Counsel under Deputy Prime Minister Meglena
Plugchieva (reports the government press office ).
It is expected that the advertisements for hiring additional personnel be published by State...
|
 |
31-10-2008 • News & Events
"Ten days ago European Commission balanced the accounts for all our payments in 2007 and approved all Bulgarian
expenditures" former executive director of State Fund Agriculture Dimitur Tadarukov said for Nova Television. He added
that that meant that all contracts which had been entered into during his office had been flawless. In his words,
according to the operative...
|
|
30-10-2008 • News & Events
By Sega Daily. Turkish company "Mapa-Chengiz", the builder of Lyulin Highway, is blackmailing Bulgaria Road Fund, a
mission of the European Parliament noted. A research group for the Budgetary Control Committee at EP gave account of its
impressions which partially spared our authorities but rebuked the Turkish executors of the Lyulin project. ISPA funding
for the project has...
|
 |
29-10-2008 • News & Events
The negotiations between representatives of the dairy producers on strike in Sofia and the Minister of Agriculture
Valeri Tsvetanov came to an end. The final agreement is for the payments in due course to be disbursed in December,
Darik Radio informed.
Dairy producers from all over the country gathered in protest in demand of their subsidies for high quality milk. The...
|
 |
29-10-2008 • News & Events
The budget committee of the European Parliament insists that the European Commission take part in continuous assessment
of the projects with EU funding in Bulgaria. This is something that has never been done for any of the European
countries. This proposal was made in a project report by the parliamentary committee for the use of EU funding in
Bulgaria. The motive is, that the...
|
 |
29-10-2008 • News & Events
In a number of places in the country the agricultural land, registered in the software of the Paying Agency (PA) for
direct payments per decare have prior to that been announced to have come down. Steliyan Stoyanov, chairman of the
National Grain Producers Association, cited by farmer.bg, informed that there are even written reports for landslides in
areas for cultures like corn...
|
 |
28-10-2008 • News & Events
By EurActiv. EULEX, the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, finally seems to be on track following an historic US
decision to join a European Security and Defence (ESDP) mission and concessions by both Serbia and Western allies.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday (27 October) in Brussels that he expected the EU mission in
Kosovo, which was until recently...
|
 |
28-10-2008 • News & Events
The spokesman of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) Alessandro Buttice stated, that the office expected convictions
for frauds with European funding because otherwise European Commission would ask Bulgaria for its money back, "Dnevnik"
informed.
In a separate statement Buttice said, that the work of our judicial system "is still in question because it is often
noted that...
|
 |
27-10-2008 • News & Events
By Sega Daily. At least 5 Member States of the EU have reconsidered their plans to fully open their labour markets for
Bulgarian citizens because of the world economic crisis in the past couple of months, Sega reported. Some of them are
Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Spain, the United Kingdom and Greece. The main reason for that is the growing unemployment
among local population....
|
 |
24-10-2008 • News & Events
The European Commission does not need to draw a new report on the management of EU funds in Bulgaria in order to
unfreeze the funding from SAPARD, PHARE and ISPA. That was made clear by the EC spokesman Mark Gray, answering a
question by Portal: Europe today.
On July 23rd 2008 the European Commission published two Progress reports on Bulgaria - one on the six problem-raising...
|
 |
24-10-2008 • News & Events
The enlargement of the Schengen Area makes further progress. It is possible that even before Christmas Austria's
neighbour levels custom barriers. Circles in Brussels already discuss Switzerland's "Christmas present", "Die
Presse" reports. This is due to the fact that the country should be accepted in the Schengen zone. The possible dates
are December 12th or 15th. A...
|
 |
24-10-2008 • News & Events
It is possible that Bulgaria itself make financial corrections on the implementation of ISPA - the pre-accession
programme of the EU if data showed that we would not manage to fulfill the deadlines of the European commission.
This was a deputy prime minister Plugchieva's comment for Re: TV, cited by Focus Agency. By October 30th the work
on analyzing and assessing the...
|
 |
23-10-2008 • News & Events
"The current management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food led by Minister Valeri Tsvetanov and Vice-premier
Meglena Plugchieva is not qualified enough" Dimitur Tadarukov (former executive director of State Fund Agriculture) said
this morning for bTV, cited by ‘Econ.bg and News.bg.
"I command Meglena Plugchieva for working with panache but this panache is far too...
|
 |
22-10-2008 • News & Events
The EPP-ED Group is committed to speeding up the process of the application of the new programme 'Safer Internet
Plus' from January 2009, which was adopted today in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. MEPs want a programme to
promote and educate users, parents and children about the safer use of the internet and other communication technologies
and to strengthen the...
|
 |
22-10-2008 • News & Events
Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev addressed the members of the National Parliament with a report on the participation of
Bulgaria in the decision-making process in EU during the Slovenian Presidency (January - June 2008) and the French
Presidency (July - December 2008). He focused his attention on the priority areas for both our country and the two
presidencies, the Government...
|
 |
22-10-2008 • News & Events
"By the end of the month a decision will be made on whether our country would request a reduction of the ISPA funding
for road building on the grounds of the finances that have already been put to use" Vice-Premier Miglena Plugchieva
stated on Tuesday (Mediapool).
She further explained that the procedure in those cases involved a correction in the financial resources from 2 to...
|
 |
21-10-2008 • News & Events
The executive director of Fund Agriculture Atanas Kunchev had sent his resignation, informed Valeri Tsvetanov,
minister of Agriculture and Food in an interview for "Trud" (BGNES). The minister specifies that the resignation lies on
personal grounds.
On Monday the minister and the ex-director of State Fund Agriculture - Paying Agency discussed the implementation of
the action...
|
 |
21-10-2008 • News & Events
By Dnevnik newspaper. All institutions in Bulgaria have been seriously activated by the critical report of the
European Commission and have already noticed tangible success and concrete results in the fight against corruption and
in the judiciary reform. Those are some of the conclusions drawn by the progress reports on the implementation of the
judiciary and internal affairs...
|
 |
News & Events |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
News & Events
