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German Investors Suggest 101 Law Amendments to Bulgarian PM
Bulgarian PM Borisov (middle) had a working breakfast with members of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Photo by DBIHK

The highway connecting Bulgaria’s capital Sofia with the Kalotina border crossing on the Serbian border will be ready by 2015, announced Bozhidar Yotov, head of the Road Infrastructure Agency.

Yotov spoke Thursday after the first meeting of a special working group, during which Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov demanded from several ministries, the road agency, and several municipalities that the highway from Sofia to Kalotina should be constructed before Serbia can build its own section to the Bulgarian border, the extension of the Belgrade-Nis Highway.

The newly-founded working group for “shock” highway construction includes deputy ministers of regional development, transport, environment, agriculture, the head of the Road Infrastructure Agency, the Governors of the Sofia City District and the Sofia District, the Chief Architect of Sofia Petar Dikov, and the mayors of the towns of Slinitsa and Dragoman.

The working group is required to draft an action plan for highway construction by the end of September.

In addition to building the Sofia-Kalotina Highway (which is considered an extension of the still uncompleted Trakiya Highway linking Sofia with Burgas on the Black Sea coast), the working group will also focus on completing two vital sections of the Sofia Beltway, announced Sofia Architect Petar Dikov.

In his words, the total cost of the three highway projects will be EUR 380 M, and the funding will come from the EU Operational Program Transport.

“We have managed to convince the European Commission of the need to finance these projects with European money. Our major argument for that is that the northern tangent of Sofia is a crossing point of three Pan-European transport corridors – Corridor 4, Corridor 8, and Corridor 10. There is no such other road section elsewhere in Europe that we know of,” declared the Road Infrastructure Agency head Yotov.

The first project, the Sofia-Kalotina highway, will be about 49 km in length. The second one is the connection from the future Lyulin Highway to the “northern tangent” of Sofia, i.e. the western section of the Sofia Beltway, which is 9.6 km long; the third project is the northern high-speed section of the beltway, known as “the northern tangent,” which will be about 16.5 km.

According to Sofia Architect Petar Dikov, the construction of the second project will cost about EUR 50 M but it should be completed by mid 2012 at the latest as by that time the Lyulin Highway will be ready, thus channeling additional traffic into the city of Sofia.

In his words, the northern section of the Sofia Beltway must be completed by September 2014; the road project has already been granted a positive environmental assessment.

The plans for the construction of the Sofia-Kalotina highway date back to 1993. They are to be updated (some of the used maps are said to read “People’s Republic of Bulgaria) so that the construction can soon.

Dikov has pointed out that the highway to the Serbian border will not be directed towards the Kalotina border crossing point but will go around it as by the time the highway is completed, Serbia will have joined the European Union, and a border crossing will not be necessary.

He reminded the case with the Ilinden border crossing on the Bulgarian-Greek border, in which Bulgaria invested EUR 4.5 M in vain as it became an EU member before the project was completed, and the border control with Greece became more relaxed.

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Bulgaria has been named the number one beach holiday destination for UK holiday-makers this summer in a brand new ranking released on Thursday.

Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast emerges as the top beach destination this summer, closely followed by North Tunisia, Antalya in Turkey, and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, according to the study, commissioned by Kelkoo, and conducted by the Center for Economics and Business Research.

The study rated the world’s most popular beach destinations using the latest official statistics to assess the performance of 10 key travel criteria, including: climate, security, local affordability of goods and services, quality of food, the cost of flights and accommodation, tourist attractions, and the exchange rate.

The top destinations rank highest due to their affordability, which is a key issue when it comes to booking a beach break. According to the index 85% of those surveyed say affordability is their top concern, with security (81%), weather (78%) and good food (77%) also deemed to be of critical importance.

“In the current climate, British holidaymakers seem to be more cost-conscious than ever,” says Bruce Fair of Kelkoo UK. “Criteria that matter most seem to be value for money and affordability.”

The survey offers a damning indictment of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and Sydney (Australia), which rank lowest mostly due to the high price of flights to reach them and lack of safety.

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Members of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DBIHK) have handed the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov a list with 101 ideas for legislation amendments.

The list with recommendations to change a total of 24 Bulgarian laws was presented to Borisov Thursday by Bertram Rollmann, President of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Deutsch-Bulgarische Industrie- und Handelskammer) during a working breakfast, which also included Bulgaria’s Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev and German Ambassador to Bulgaria Matthias Hoepfner.

The 101 recommendations are mostly based on a comparison of the legislations in Bulgaria and Germany, and have been described as a response to Borisov call upon the German businessmen to support the realization of crucial reforms in the country. They refer mostly to tax, commercial, labor, and civic law as well as the regulation of the energy market and public procurement procedures.

The German-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry suggests that the Bulgarian Constitution should be changed in order to allow physical and judicial persons to appeal directly to the Constitutional Court with respect to laws that violate their rights and freedoms. At present, this is allowed only to the President, the Ombudsman, the Council of Ministers, the Chief Prosecutor, the judges from the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court, and a group of at least 40 MPs.

The full list with the suggestions entitled "101 Ideas for an European Bulgaria" can be found on the website of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry HERE (in Bulgarian).

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The number of years of service required for retirement will increase gradually beginning January 1, 2011, Bulgaria's Social Policy and Labor Minister, Totyu Mladenov, reconfirms Thursday.

Mladenov made the announcement after a meeting with the parliamentary group of the opposition left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria, led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

The Minister explained the required number of years will go up by 1 in 2011 and with 1 more in 2012 and 2013 each to reach the planned 37 years for women (currently 34) and 40 years for men (currently 37). The retirement age will remain 60 years for men and 57 years for women, Mladenov reiterated.

The emergency measures, which were debated for several days this week by the so-called Three-Way Council between the cabinet, the employers and the labor unions, aim at securing better collection of revenues from insurance contributions and will be submitted for approval with the Council of Ministers as early as next week, according to the Minister.

Mladenov was, however, firm the amount of the mandatory insurance fees should not go up as the left-wing wants because such move would not help the collection of revenues.

“The National Social Security Institute (NOI) has a very hard time collecting insurance now, what will happen if we increase this fee even more,” the Minister says, reaffirming his earlier statements the situation at NOI is dramatic.

The NOI deficit, the ruling center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party says they inherited from the previous Socialist-led cabinet, is estimated at BGN 2 B and increased by another BGN 200 M in the first half of 2010 over low revenue collection.

Mladenov further pointed out that it is crucial for the measures to be applied in January 2011 so that the stability of the social security system can be guaranteed in the next four years, adding increasing the required years of service is very important because people, who know they need those years to retire, would avoid working without a labor contract.

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Increase of direct foreign investments and of export are defined as the two main tasks for Bulgaria's trade attaches abroad by Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov.

The Minister presented Thursday the new rules for the application process, the work and the assessment of the performance of the trade representatives and opportunities for their staff development.

Traikov spoke during a meeting with economy experts and advisors, saying from now on those representatives will be appointed for a 3-year term instead of the current 1-year in order to halt the practice to bring outside people into the system, who then leave to work for the corporate business. Upon expiration of the 3-year term, it can be extended by another 12 months.

Those whose term expires will be asked to return to Bulgaria and work for the Economy Ministry for at least 2 years, before being given the opportunity for a new assignment abroad. If the performance assessment is unsatisfactory, the particular representative can be recalled early.

The job announcement, application and competition process will first be posted only for the employees of the Ministry, and external applicants will be sought only if the internal ones are not suitable.

The changes aim at better rotation of personnel, more predictability, clear assessment criteria all along with reducing by 10% the 2010 budget slated for these representatives.

Bulgaria recently reduced the number of its trade representatives abroad from 63 to 58 by cutting posts in Brazil, Los Angeles, the Hague and Portugal, but new ones will be opened in Israel and South Korea. The country now has representatives in 41 countries in Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Republics, in Asia, the Middle East, North America and in Northern Africa.

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Central European Media Enterprises Ltd., which bought Bulgaria's first national private television bTV earlier this year, has forecast that ad spending in Bulgaria will fall by 12% in 2010.

"TV add spending in 2010 did not match our expectations for recovery. Therefore, the whole year will be challenging," Chief Executive Adrian Sarbu said in a conference call.

"Overall, the second half of the year will show positive trends, but the take-off will be slow."

Market recovery started in the Czech Republic and Slovenia in the second quarter, and will begin in the second half in Slovakia and Croatia, CME said.

The broadcaster forecast ad spending to fall on average 3% in its six markets for all of 2010.

Earlier in the week Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. said its revenues rose 10.3% to USD 201.7 M in the second quarter as the Bulgarian acquisition offset a slump in ad income.

News Corporation completed the sale of the largest Bulgarian private TV station, bTV, to Central European Media Enterprises in late April.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation sold bTV for a total of USD 400 M plus a payment of USD 13 M for a working capital adjustment to Central European Media Enterprises owned by another tycoon, Ronald Lauder.

Under the terms of the agreement, CME will acquire 100% of the terrestrial free-to-air TV channel, bTV. It will also take control of the two genre channels, bTV Comedy and bTV Cinema, along with News Corporation’s 74% interest in Radio Company C.J which operates five radio stations.

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Bulgaria's so-called Crew 28, which is taking care of the air flights of the Prime Minister, the President, the cabinet and other officials is now under the authority of the Council of Ministers.

The decision was made by the Members of the Bulgarian Parliament Thursday. Until now Crew 28 was under the authority of the Transport Ministry. During the debates, the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) asked to place the Crew with the Defense Ministry.

The MPs further decided to allow the lease of other planes from licensed companies when there are specific flight requirements while the use of Crew 28 by ministries, agencies and other State administration structures would be paid for by the respective institution.

Former Transport Minister, Petar Mutafchiev, from BSP, believes the decision increases too much the responsibilities of the Prime Minister and will lead to less security control and safety and to the loosening of the fiscal discipline.

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Bulgaria's revenue agents must have full access to the credit records of companies that have applied for business loans, the Director of NRA, Krasimir Stefanov, says.

Stefanov spoke Thursday in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, saying it is a very urgent and pressing matter to grant this access because during the so-called “credit boom” businesses presented to banks forged information much different than the one listed in the National Revenue Agency (NRA) tax declarations.

According to the NRA Director, there are scores of instances when companies with zero profits have obtained loans in the amount of thousands of hundreds of EUR.

The request for such access has been voiced during previous cabinet terms as well, but never materialized over the banks refusal to comply basing it on the Credit Institutions Act protecting their clients' account information.

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Bulgaria must pay by the end of the year an installment of EUR 67 M for its second nuclear power plant project, which has stalled over lack of a new investor and funding, a deputy minister has said.

“Bulgaria's outstanding payments for the project by the end of the year stand at EUR 67 M. The future expenses will depend on the work conducted by Russia's Atomstroyexport, commissioned to build the planned 2,000 megawatt plant,” Deputy Minister Marij Kosev said in an interview for Trud daily.

He added that the Bulgarian government is currently holding negotiations with the Russian company in a bid to reduce its operations as much as possible.

“There is too much goings-on, but at the same time it is hard for us to pay,” the deputy minister said.

He pointed out that the government is exploring ways to reschedule the outstanding payments even after it successfully finds a strategic investor.

Bulgaria suspended the construction of its second nuclear power plant until it finds a new investor and funds to complete the project at Belene, on the Danube, 180 kilometres northeast of the capital Sofia.

The government has reportedly courted Romania, Serbia and Macedonia as it angles for a company to replace the German energy company RWE, which withdrew last autumn.

The plant was originally to be built by Russian company Atomstroyexport for EUR 4 B. The first reactor is expected to be built by mid-September for delivery to the site. Bulgaria has to pay an installment of EUR 280 M in addition to EUR 300 M already paid.

Last month Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov unexpectedly said that his country was “giving up” on Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project decision, and that construction on the planned Belene nuclear power plant had been suspended.

In a dramatic twist that left all of Europe confused, Borisov retracted his statements shortly afterwards, saying that the Bulgarian government hasn’t made a final decision regarding the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline and Belene nuclear power plant.

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Bulgaria's former Energy Minister, Rumen Ovcharov, will not be probed by the Sofia City Appellate Prosecutor's Office over the annexes to the gas contracts signed with Russia in 2006.

The information was reported Thursday by the prosecutors in the case, saying there is no evidence of a crime and the claim is prescribed because the Amnesty Act postulated that no one can be prosecuted for premeditated mismanagement executed before July 1, 2008.

The prosecutors further point out the economic feasibility and profitability of the annexes can be debated, but nevertheless they do not bear any evidence of criminal activity such as consciously concluding an unprofitable deal inflicting serious damages for the country and benefiting particular individuals, including Ovacharov himself.

The document explains fuel prices are very dynamic and negotiations in the energy sector cannot lead to criminal charges.

The complaint against the former Minister and now Member of the Parliament from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) was filed by the MP from the People's Party, Maria Kapon, and her Deputy, Eleonora Nikolova. They insist the annexes, which changed the price of Russian gas for Bulgaria, deprived the State by BGN 2 B, adding there is lack of will to apply the law.

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Cleves, a luxury Sofia apartment rentals company. has opened a brand-new 15-apartment development at Cherkovna Str in Sofia’s Oborishte municipality. 

Cleves Cherkovna is the company’s most central rental property to date. The new property, which was formally presented to the media Wednesday night, is just to the east of the Doctors Garden. The developer was Prime Property BG REIT.

This is the company’s fourth property to open in Sofia. Cleves already has a Sofia portfolio of 42 apartments for rent at projects in the quarters of Boyana, Izgrev and Manastirski Livadi.

Cleves Cherkovna has a range of luxury 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, and two penthouses.

Each Cherkovna apartment is different, with its own design philosophy, but all focus on style and comfort. The apartments are light and airy, with big windows, the company managers said emphasizing also that each apartment has a balcony, with the upper floors offering wonderful views of Vitosha and the city. Every apartment has its own underground parking space, with elevator access to the living area.

Cars enter via a custom-built vehicle lift. For security and convenience, a concierge is on duty 24 hours a day.

Cleves has made it clear that it owns and operates the entire building - which means that everything is maintained in tip-top condition.

Cleves has installed modern fitted kitchens, and every apartment has central heating and its own air-conditioning. Each apartment has Wi-fi pre-installed, plus flat-screen TV with satellite and cable access. Every apartment has a full security system, with burglar alarm motion detection, and access alarms.

Cleves EOOD is in the process of acquiring a EUR 40 M portfolio of up-market, new-built residential property in Sofia.

The company focuses on the top-end of the rentals market. Its clients are senior international business people and diplomats.

The company points out that owns and operates all the apartments in its portfolio in order to be able to offer the highest quality of service.

“We are pleased to add Cleves Cherkovna to our rental portfolio.  To be able to offer for rent an entire building of stylish apartments so close to the centre of Sofia is rare indeed.  Demand is strong.  Long before the launch over 25% of Cherkovna’s apartments had been reserved,” said Peter Diakov, General Manager of Cleves EOOD.

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Thousands of tourists from Bulgaria, Russia and Serbia, who are traveling by car, remain stranded in northern Greece because of the lorry drivers strike, officials have said.

“Bookings by tourists from neighboring countries have also been frozen because of the strike,“ the head of the Hellenic Hotels Federation, Andreas Andreadis, said in a television interview Thursday.

The interview came just as the Greek government used a rare emergency order to force lorry drivers back to work after a three-day strike.

The government issued a rare emergency order to the owners and drivers of the trucks to return to work Thursday, saying they face severe penalties - including being stripped of their licenses - if they don't.

The strike has caused gas stations in Athens to run out of fuel, stranding people around the country, including many Greeks who leave for August vacation.

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An increasing number of foreigners and Bulgarians alike are engaging in what has been described as “alcohol tourism” in the numerous resorts along the country’s Southern Black Sea coast.

Scores of restaurants, discos, and hotels in the southern resorts, including Bulgaria’s largest resort Sunny Beach, are offering cheap alcohol and cocktails which are attractive to both foreign and Bulgarian tourists, reports the Varna-based news site moreto.net,

“The tense lifestyles of the Bulgarians are clearly having an impact. We used to be rescuing mostly foreigners from alcohol poisoning but now the number of Bulgarians who become out patients after summer drinking parties is on the rises,” Dr. Georgi Matev, head of the intensive care ward in the hospital in the city of Burgas, is quoted as saying.

The report points out that in terms of the quantities of alcohol that they consume, the Bulgarian tourists are rivaling the “toughest” drinkers who are said to be tourists from the UK, Finland, and Sweden.

The alcohol poising treatment usually takes 3-5 days and costs the Burgas hospital about BGN 200 per day per patient.

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Ivelin Nikolov, a top-tier official of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, vented exasperation at the overall behavior of US ambassador to Bulgaria James Warlick, choosing the form of a self-styled open letter to US President Barack Obama published in Bulgarian daily Duma Thursday.

In the short text Nikolov, who is editor-in-chief of Duma, expresses disaffection with the US ambassador's ways of commenting on Bulgarian political life and of voicing strong positive and negative opinions on various domestic issues.

Nikolov claims that Warlick, among other things, “proclaims who is a criminal and who is not, without taking into consideration the courts.” The socialist further points out that the American ambassador “interrogates ministers on what they do and on the negotiations they are having with third countries” and moreover gives advice to regular Bulgarians on what their views should be.

Nikolov characterizes this behavior on the part of the US diplomat as “systematic”, “demonstrative” and thus “troubling” in view of the fact that Bulgaria is an independent nation.

The Bulgarian socialist choses to wonder whether that was the mission which President Obama entrusted to the US envoy, suggesting that Warlick's actions might be eroding the image of the USA amongst Bulgarians.

The open letter closes by pointing out Bulgaria's strong commitment as a “loyal and predictable partner in NATO” and expectation for reciprocal respect.

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There are no forthcoming negotiations between Bulgaria and the Somali pirates who hijacked the Bulgarian chemical tanker MV Panega, according to a report of NGO Ecoterra International.

The Bulgarian vessel Panega was hijacked on May 11, 2010, in the Gulf of Aden in the proximity of the internationally protected shipping corridor and approximately 100 nautical miles east of Aden (Yemen).

The chemical products tanker of 5 848 tonnes was en route from the Red Sea to India. It has a crew of 15 Bulgarians.

According to Ecoterra, an international NGO monitoring the activities of the Somali pirates, the vessel is now held at the north-eastern Somali coast in the vicinity of Garacad.

Major General Buster Howes, head of Europe’s Operation Atalanta, stated that there is no information about the crew of MT PANEGA.

Local informers are cited as reporting that the crew is all right, even though food and clean water are low. It is unclear when talks for the release of the Bulgarian sailors and the ship might start.

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Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry has issued a warning over the strike of truck owners in its southern neighbor, which has starved Greece of fuel.

“The Ministry recommends that all Bulgarians traveling to Greece should fill up their tanks with enough gas in order to be able to reach their destination and to come back,” says a special statement released Thursday.

The Foreign Ministry has made it clear that it did not have any information about Bulgarians stranded in Greece but points out that the truck owners has created “temporary problems” with the supply of fuels in the latter.

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Bulgaria and Romania are undertaking all necessary measures to bring back the Roma, who have violated French laws, Bulgarian Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov informs.

Tsvetanov spoke Thursday, in the aftermath of media reports about French Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, declaring Roma camps in the country would be demolished and all Roma involved in illegal activities would be immediately deported to Bulgaria and Romania.

“We have received the information and we are acting together with our Romanian colleagues to bring back those who have violated the law. We are currently working on specifying how many of them are Bulgarian and how many are Romanian citizens,” the Minister pointed out, adding the exact number of those detained is not yet known, but not all of them are from Bulgaria or Romania.

The Romanian Embassy in Sofia confirmed they have been notified about the issue and are undertaking measures.

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German federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle voiced his conviction that Turkey's true orientation is a European one on his official visit to the country, but still left uncertainty over Turkey's eventual accession to the EU.

“Turkey's direction is Europe,” said Westerwelle in Turkish at a joint press-conference with Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, reports Deutsche Welle.

The German foreign minister stated that his country has a “great interest” in Turkey's looking towards the EU, adding that Germany views Turkey as “an exceptionally important strategic partner.”

Westerwelle nevertheless did not fail to give signals of Germany's misgivings about a future EU-membership on the part of Turkey, saying that the process of accession is open-ended and not automatic.

In an interview for German daily Bild before his visit to Turkey, Westerwelle had said: “If the question had to be decided today, then Turkey is not capable of accession and the EU is not capable of admission.” He nevertheless added that it is of utmost importance that the EU does not alienate the country and that the Union retains and fosters the partnership between the two.

Westerwelle's visit comes just days after British PM David Cameron, on his visit to Turkey in the beginning of the week, strongly vowed for Turkish EU-membership and expressed “anger” and “frustration” at slow accession talks, directing his ire at detractors of Turkey.

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Bulgaria ethnic Turkish leader Ahmed Dogan managed to escape prosecution over allegations that he pocketed BGN 1,5 M as a consultant of hydro projects funded by the state.

A meeting of the parliamentary commission for corruption fight and conflict of interests, which was to vote Thursday on sending Dogan to the judiciary, failed after two of its members surprisingly did not show up.

Borislav Velikov, MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, and Nikolay Kotsev from the ruling GERB party, failed to appear at the meeting for what were said to be “personal reasons”, triggering suspicions of behind-the-scene moves aimed to rescue Ahmed Dogan.

“Someone does not want to solve the issue and prefers to just postpone it,” the chairman of the commission Dimo Gyaurov from the right-wing Blue Coalition, commented.

According to Gyaurov the commission was highly likely to support the proposal for approaching the Supreme Administrative Court on the back of the strong evidence gathered.

Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which was a member of the former three-way government, allegedly took BGN 1,5 M as a consultant of four large-scale hydroelectricity projects - ‘Tsankov Kamak’, ‘Dospat’, ‘Gorna Arda’ and ‘Tundzha’ Dam.

The scandal erupted in May after a visit of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to the site of the hydroelectric power plant ‘Tsankov Kamak’, where he revealed that a huge hike in the initial price has been discovered and prosecutors have already been alerted.

The money for the hydro power plant "Tsankov Kamak", from where Dogan took the sky-high payment as an “expert”, were paid by the state-owned National Electricity Distribution Company, left in tatters after the ruling of the previous cabinet.

The new center-right government of Bulgaria was elected on an anti-corruption mandate last July and on the promise to bring to justice those involved in huge-scale corruption schemes.

The latest embezzlement allegations against Ahmed Dogan have been widely considered to be a litmus test for the government's willingness to do so in practice.

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Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament Tsetska Tsacheva presented deep apologies to fellow Bulgarians over the saga around the scandalous amendment to the drugs law that was published this spring in the state Official Gazette without having been voted in plenary.

Speaking at Thursday's plenary, when the National Assembly adopted a report recommending the referral of the case to the prosecutor, Tsacheva said that what happened is a “stain” on her and the Parliament's reputation.

Tsacheva expressed especial regret at the fact that while chairing the fatal plenary sitting she did not pay enough attention to what was being read out from the tribune.

The Parliament chair supported the report of the ad hoc committee on the case and underscored that all blame and guilt must be personal and not collective.

Notwithstanding, Tsacheva specified that her apologies do not apply to representatives of opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party.

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The Bulgarian Parliament adopted Thursday the report of an ad hoc committee set up to investigate circumstances under which an amendment to the Law on Drugs that was not voted in plenary was published in Bulgaria's official State Gazette.

116 MPs voted in favor of the resolution, with none against and two abstaining. The act recommends that the case be referred to the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office.

The two MPs involved in the scandal – Plamen Tsekov and Svetlin Tanchev from the ruling GERB party – have already resigned from their positions in parliamentary committees.

MP Maya Manolova from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party alleged that the quick resolution of the issue is actually an “umbrella” extended by GERB to cover up those who were actually at the bottom of the misdeed and to punish only minor offenders.

Hristo Biserov from the other main opposition party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, claimed that the event is a first in Bulgarian parliamentary practice – the first breach of parliamentary rules that also constitutes a crime.

MPs from GERB dismissed the opposition attacks, saying that similar quips would have been present no matter what the results of the investigation were. GERB's Petar Petrov explained off the Socialists' statements as just a desperate attempt to regain dwindling public support.

The scandal burst when in March Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, who is the one to promulgate Bulgarian laws, alerted the National Assembly that an correction to the Law on Drug Substances has appeared in the State Gazette without the President's signature or a vote on the part of Parliament.

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The parliamentary group of Bulgaria's conservative Order, Law and Justice (RZS) party will have more members than the required quota of 10, the RZS leader, Yane Yanev, says.

The new group will have anywhere between 11 and 15 Members of the Parliament, Yanev pointed out, adding he had already notified the Speaker from the ruling center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, Tsetska Tsacheva, about the plan and she did not have objections.

During the talk with Tsacheva it had emerged that the reinstatement of a parliamentary group after its fall apart is possible because there is no such clause in the Parliamentary Code, so “what is not banned is allowed,” the RZS MP, Emil Vasilev, joined in.

Yanev pointed out the new group will not have MPs from the two main opposition fractions – the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) nor will he accept back those who, in the beginning of the year, broke the RZS ranks.

“Only independent MPs, who will first become party members will be allowed to join in,” according to the party leader.

Since the beginning of the year RZS suffered the defection of MPs Mario Tagarinski and Dimitar Chukarski, and of the RZS leadership member, Dimitar Abadzhiev. The changes took its parliamentary group below the ten-member minimum and stripped it of its official status. Yanev was quick to blame Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, for the falling apart of the parliamentary group.

On another topic, involving recent cases of police brutality, Yanev said he had been alerted about many other incidents, in addition to the one in the city of Kardzhali where 4 police officers thrashed a family. The RZS leader gave as example police illegally raiding the offices of two companies, and 7 other cases of police violence, adding he had notified Borisov already and the latter apologized.

“The Bulgarian police faces huge problems – people are incompetent and not motivated at all,” Yanev concluded.

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Ivo Indzhev, one of Bulgaria's most prominent journalists, who was kicked out four years ago from national private bTV for allegedly libeling President Georgi Parvanov, has warned of an assassination attempt being plotted against him.

“Bulgaria's senior prosecutor Boris Velchev has ordered a check of an alert for a planned assassination attempt against me, which was sent by a media,” Indzhev wrote in his blog.

According to the announcement the plot was triggered by the journalist's latest book “A President on the Edge”, which deals with Socialist President Georgi Parvanov.

This is not the first time that the journalist, an emblematic figure for Bulgaria's transition from communism to democracy, and President Parvanov draw the battle lines.

The biggest scandal between the two erupted four years ago when Indzhev still hosted his own Sunday weekly broadcast, aired by the private national bTV channel - "At the bull's eye".

In October 2006 Indzhev cited emails sent to his editorial office claiming that President Georgi Parvanov owns a maisonette in downtown city.

In prompt reaction, the electioneering headquarters of Parvanov circulated a statement denouncing the reports as untrue and "an attempt to provoke a discrediting war".

Indzhev was fired shortly afterwards in a move that he says was orchestrated by the president.

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Aleksey Skurlatov, the soldier who served as the model of Bulgaria’s most famous Soviet Army monument, has received a medal from the Bulgarian President.

Skurlatov is the man whose picture from 1944 was used by Bulgarian sculptors to design the Monument of Alesha in the city of Plovdiv, a monument representing Bulgaria’s gratitude to the Soviet soldiers.

The Red Army veteran, who now resides in the Altai Republic in Central Russia, has been award a medal entitled “65 Years since the Victory over Fascism”. The medal was presented to Skurlatov on Thursday by local governor Alexandr Karlin.

“Aleksey Skurlatov is venerated in Bulgaria as an honorary citizen. We have given to Aleksey Ivanovic an invitation on part of the Bulgarian authorities to visit their country,” stated Viktor Krasilov, a local activist of the United Russia party who brought the medal from Bulgaria, as cited by ITAR-TASS.

Aleksey Skurlatov was mobilized in World World II in September 1941. He went as far west as Bulgaria with the advancing Red Army, returning to his hometown in 1946.

During the war he participated in the severe Kursk Battle, and was subsequently awarded a Red Star medal and other honors.

In 1944, in his capacity as a signalman, Aleksey Skurlatov participated in repairing the telephone connection between Plovdiv and the Bulgarian capital Sofia, reminds ITAR-TASS.

This is when a historic photograph was made of him that was later used by Bulgarian sculptors to design the monument symbolizing the unknown Soviet warrior named Alesha, which is still towering above today’s city of Plovdiv.

The Alesha monument is 11 meters in height, and is located on the Bonardzhik Hill in Plovdiv. It consists of the figure of a Soviet Army soldier with his head turned to the east, holding down a Shpagin machine pistol in one hand.

The monument was built in 1954-1957. It is the most famous Communist Era monument in Bulgaria with even the Soviet Army Monument in Sofia paling in comparison to it.

In 1966, Soviet composers created the Alesha anthem, which was the official anthem of Plovdiv until 1989.

In 2007, the Plovdiv residents marked the 50th birthday of the Alesha monument. It is said to be the largest granite monument in the world.

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Outraged imams submitted Thursday with the Parliament a declaration signed by 200 000 Bulgarian Muslims demanding annulment of the reinstatement of Nedim Gendzhev as Chief Mufti.

This is the latest in a series of protests all around the country against the May 12 ruling of the Supreme Court of Cassations which brought back Gendzhev as Chief Mufti.

In October 2009, the National Muslim Conference decided to elect Mustafa Ali Hadzhias Chief Mufti. However, Gendzev appealed the Conference's vote and the Bulgarian Supreme Court of Cassations decided to reinstate him at the post. The muftis insist Mustafa Ali Hadzhi is the only legally elected Chief Mufti in Bulgaria.

The Thursday rally was joined by the Member of the European Parliament of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), Metin Kazak, who pointed out Gendzhev had been Chief Mufti since the time of Communist Dictator, Todor Zhivkov, and an agent of the Communist State Security. He stated the Court's rule is a nondemocratic interference in the internal affairs of a legal religion.

Kazak promised to approach the European Parliament and the European Commission over the issue.

The Bulgarian imams further demanded the resignation of the Minister without Portfolio for the Bulgarians Abroad, Bozhidar Dimitrov, over his media appearances and statements in which he failed to honor the will of the Bulgarian Muslims.

The muftis point out they are outraged by the disregard for their religious rights on the part of State institutions in Bulgaria.

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German power/speed metal band Helloween will stage its fifth ever concert in Bulgaria in January 2011.

Helloween will be performing together with the Finnish metal band Stratovarius on January 23, 2010, in the Hristo Botev Hall, announced the concert organizers Loud Concerts.

The concert will be part of Helloween’s “THE 7 SINNERS WORLD TOUR 2010/11”, which will start in Vienna, Austria, in November 2010.

The German power metal band will be presenting their new album 7 SINNERS.

Helloween’s last tour was in 2007/2008, together with another German metal band, GAMMA RAY, and the group is said to be looking forward to its join concerts with the Finns from Stratovarius.

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Parts of St. John the Baptist's relics might have been discovered during archaeological excavations in Bulgaria's southern Black Sea town of Sozopol, report Bulgarian media.

Archaeologists investigating the Sv. Ivan (St. John) island off Sozopol have found an exquisite reliquary – a relic urn – built in the altar of an ancient church bearing the name of St. John the Baptist

The reliquary has the shape of a sarcophagus and is dated end of 4th - beginning of 5th c. AD. It was discovered by the team of Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov.

The church's name, as well as the fact that it had a special emperor's statute issued, has hinted to archeologists that it might actually contain St. John's relics. The urn is expected to be opened Sunday.

St. John the Baptist - called also the Forerunner - is an imposing figure in the Christian New Testament. He was the last to prophecize the coming of Jesus Christ - and the one to baptize the young Jesus in the river Jordan. The great prophet died a martyr's death beheaded by king Herod at the request of his daughter Salome.

According to the Bible, St. John the Forerunner prophesized about Christ thus: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and fire" (Matthew 3:11).

St. John the Baptist is especially venerated by the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church. Over the centuries, there have been controversies about where his relics are located.

The town of Sozopol is one of the most ancient on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, dating from the Bronze age. It was colonized by Greeks, headed by philosopher Anaximander, around 610 BC. Sozopol became an early Christian centre with its own bishop. For most of the Middle Ages, it was part of the Byzantine empire.

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My son Asen is not missing as UK tabloid Sun will have it, stated Margarita Berbatova, mother of Bulgarian Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov.

“That is complete nonsense, I am constantly in touch with my son,” said Berbatova for Bulgarian news agency BGNES.

Thursday The Sun came out with the title “Berba's Brother 'Kidnapped'”, explaining that Asen Berbatov was abducted by gangsters in Bulgaria over debt and “has not been seen for a month.”

The British paper further quotes Bulgarian police from the Berbatov brothers' native Blagoevgrad, where Asen resides, who allegedly say that they are aware of his disappearance but cannot start a search for the younger brother before the family files a report that he is missing.

Blagoevgrad police stated for BGNES that they have no information whatsoever that the younger Berbatov has been abducted.

The Sun quotes prior threats to the Berbatovs family for kidnapping for ransom, and ends by stating that Dimitar is on bad terms with brother Asen “over his younger brother's alleged gambling and cocaine habits.”

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Liverpool manager is reportedly considering a move for Bulgarian Aston Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov, who he hopes will replace transfer-seeking Javier Mascherano.

Roy Hodgson admires the Bulgarian star's style and is ready to offer GBP 7 M for Petrov's services, The Mirror reported.

According to the article the Bulgarian star is aware of the Liverpool interest and could be keen on a move to Anfield - although Villa are desperate to keep their squad together despite so many being wanted men.

Petrov is the second Villa player Hodgson has been linked with after reports suggested he made a move for right-back Luke Young, with the former Fulham boss keen to add some experience to his squad ahead of the new Premier League season.

The Reds take on Macedonian side Rabotnicki on Thursday evening in the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie.

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Bulgaria's prosecutors have launched pre-trial proceedings against Finance Minister Simeon Djnakov over accusations of leaking classified information.

The minister has declined to comment.

The signal against Djankov was filed in February by the opposition Socialists, who accused him of disclosing a secret agreement between his predecessor, Plamen Oresharski and the governor of the Bulgarian Central Bank, BNB, Ivan Iskrov, to deposit part of the fiscal reserve in private banks.

Djankov made the revelation in October 2009 during a parliamentary control session to back his own proposal for a similar move.

Finance Minister Simeon Djankov is the second high-ranking Bulgarian politician to face charges over a leak of classified information.

In mid-July Sergey Stanishev, Bulgaria's former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Socialist Party, was formally charged over the leak of a classified report on organized crime that shattered the country at the end of last year.

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Kadir Mustafov, member of the Kardzhali family that recently suffered from violence on part of the Bulgarian police, stated that policemen had absolutely no ground for entering his home and probably had ulterior motives.

Speaking in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio Thursday morning, Mustafov said that interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov must have been misled from his Karzhdali subordinates and that the account presented by him before Parliament Wednesday was incorrect.

Mustafov again denied that he had called Dzhem Mustafa to order prostitutes, saying that he simply wanted to use his taxi services. Mustafov was convinced that since his phone conversations were recorded by the police, that can be quickly ascertained.

He further expressed dismay at the fact that after having tracked alleged pimp Dzhem Mustafa, the police have let him and the alleged prostitutes out of attention in order to break into the Mustafovi home. Kadir Mustafov was convinced that the break-in and violence that ensued had ulterior motives.

"A lot ot people must have called Dzhem that night," Kadir said. "Why did police targed precisely us?" He added that the action might have been politically motivated.

Mustafov is a local activist of opposition party Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

He reiterated the resolve of his family to sue the Bulgarian police, both at home courts and in Strasbourg.

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The police operation carried out in Kardzhali last Friday, when police broke in a private home and allegedly hurt people there, was thoroughly legal, stated Bulgarian Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov Thursday.

“Everything that took place in Kardzhali is within the bounds of the law,” said Tsvetanov, adding that until someone is proven to be guilty he, as a minister, will continue to defend “professional actions” on the part of policemen.

“We must not politicize a regular police action,” called Tsvetanov, regarding criticism on the part of both people hurt and opposition parties Bulgarian Socialist Party and Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

He failed to comment whether the police had a court order to enter a private home Friday.

The interior minister was nevertheless resolute that investigation on the events will continue until a full clarification of the case. On the other hand he stated that the account the police gave does not conflict with the accounts of witnesses.

He praised the work of the Bulgarian police as a whole and largely played down allegations about other cases of arbitrary police coercion.

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Bulgaria is planning to create two brand new agencies to counter corruption and organized crime in order to clean its tarnished image as one of the most corrupt EU Member States.

The statement was made by Bulgaria's Justice Minister, Margarita Popova, in an interview for Reuters, cited by Darik radio.

The interview notes the pressure on Romania and Bulgaria coming from Brussels to deal effectively with corruption and organized crime, but reminds the EC praised Bulgaria for its will to carry out reforms in their July report on justice and home affairs through the so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).

Popova says the two agencies must start work as early as the beginning of 2011. One of them will probe all suspicions of conflict of interests and will have the authority to issue administrative sanctions, fines and job dismissal orders while the other one will focus in corruption prevention in early stages.

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Germany has asked Bulgaria to extradite two Bulgarian citizens over charges of human trafficking and pimping, the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, reports.

The two, a father, 48, and his son, 24, abused and exploited at least three women in the German city of Bremen. The German authorities began their probe after being alerted by the Czech police when one of the victims, a 19-year-old girl, managed to send an sms to her relatives. The search of the Bremen apartment led to the discovery of the girl, another woman from the Czech Republic, and a Bulgarian woman, who said they have been lured to Germany with promises of decent jobs, only to find out they would be forced into prostitution.

The older Bulgarian man took their passports, drugged them, abused them and rapped them. He had his son and girlfriend, also a Czech citizen, as accomplices.

The men managed to flee Germany and return to Bulgaria, where they have been arrested by the local police, who received high praise from their German colleagues for the quick reaction.

The two are under arrest, pending extradition.

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A wave of protests by the Muslim community in Bulgaria has been swinging the country in the past months. The reason is the reinstatement of Nedim Gendzhev as the Chief Mufti of the Bulgarian Muslims.

The protests, however, are not surprising. Coups and court fights have been surrounding the Bulgarian Muslim community for the past 20 years.

It all started in 1987 when Gendzhev was appointed as the religious leader of Muslims in Bulgaria by the Communist Dictator, Todor Zhivkov. According to the protesting Muslims, at that time, Gendzhev also served as an agent of the communist State Security service at a very notorious period for the Bulgarian Muslims.

The late 1980s were an especially turbulent period for the relations between the ethnic and religious communities in Bulgaria as this was the period of the so called “Revival” or “Regeneration Process” taken up by the Bulgarian Communist Party – a thrust to assimilate the Muslim/Turkish minority by changing the names of its members with Slavic/Christian ones – which drove some 300 000 Bulgarian Turks into exile in Turkey in 1988-1989. (Up to half of those are estimated to have come back after the communist regime collapsed in 1989.)

A number of disciplinary dismissals and cases of reinstatement of Gendzhev have followed.

After his deposition in 1992, he managed to win a trial against the Bulgarian state at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and received USD 20 000 in addition to his reinstatement.

In May 2005, the Sofia City Court formally registered Mustafa Ali Hadzhi as Chief Mufti. Rival Muslim leader Gendzhev then filed an appeal, and in December 2005, the Sofia Appellate Court ordered Gendzhev's registration as the head of the Supreme Muslim Council, i.e. Chief Mufti.

At a National Muslim Conference in October 2009, however, the Muslim community elected Mustafa Ali Hadzhi as the Chief Mufti in Bulgaria. Gendzhev appealed the Conference’s vote and the Bulgarian Supreme Court of Cassation decided that the conference was not legitimate due to forged documents and reinstated him at his position.

After the final ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation from May 18, 2010, to reinstate Gendzhev as Chief Mufti in Bulgaria, regional Muftis, Imams and regular Muslims from all over the country have united to protests against him.

Gendzhev has claimed in an interview for the Bulgarian daily “24 Hours” that there is no split in the Muslim religion and that the Imams in the country date back from the time that he was appointed Chief Mufti. What is more, he also stated that these Imams have not received salaries for 10 years.

Now, a few questions come to mind.

First, why does Gendhzev claim that all the Imams support him, when the Bulgarian society is witnessing the protests of the Imam and their signing a declaration against him? And why would they support the rival religious leader if he has not paid them salaries for 10 years, as Gendzhev claims?

What’s more, according to Mustafa Ali Hadzhi, the people who have participated in Gendzhev’s Conference in 1996 have either died or changed their opinion.

“Nedim Gendzhev claims that only his Muslim Conference from 1996 is legitimate. But look at how many people have participated in it – 30. 14 of them have died and 7 have withdrawn,” Mustafa Ali HAdzhi has said.

Another discrepancy leads one to wonder if it is true that most of the Muslims do not want Gendzhev as their leader, as the protesters claim. If this is true, why did they have to forge the documents with the votes of the Muslims at the Muslim conferences in 2009?

This raises still another question: if it is true that there have been forged documents and Gendzhev should be considered the rightfully elected Chief Mufti, then why are at least 2000 Muslims protesting almost every week against his reinstatement? Why are they approaching the Bulgarian and the EU authorities?

At the last protest on July 29, Imams announced they have submitted to the Parliament a declaration signed by 200 000 Bulgarian Muslims demanding yet again the annulment of the reinstatement of Gendzhev.

The rally was also joined by the Member of the European Parliament from the ethnic Turkish party “Movement for Rights and Freedoms” (DPS), Metin Kazak, who pointed out that the Court’s ruling is a nondemocratic interference in the internal affairs of a legally recognized religion.

Kazak also promised to approach the European Parliament and the European Commission over the issue.

This seems like the final, desperate measure by an oppressed community. But if Gendzhev is the leader Muslims really want, as he claims, then why would they feel oppressed?

“This is an outrage against the Muslim community. We do not allow and will never allow, in any circumstances, Nedim Gendzhev and his clique to usurp the Chief Mufti Office by crossing out 14 years during which the Muslim religion had its legitimate leadership. A present, the legitimate chosen Chief Mufti is Mustafa Ali Hadzhi,” said former Chief Mufti Selim Mehmed during a protest on June 3.

Claims that Gendzhev has not been chosen by the Muslim community and accusations that his reinstatement is a lack of democracy have been the leitmotiv of all the protests.

This is where one should point out that in 2006 Gendzhev was charged with being involved in illegally withdrawing nearly BGN 1 M from the accounts of the Chief Mufti Office and transferring them to his son’s private foundation.

The court ruled that there is evidence that Gendzhev had committed a crime but there was no risk that he may leave the country, so he was released on a bail of BGN 10 000.

This is only one of the reasons the Bulgarian Muslims are against him being their religious leader.

During protests, regional Muftis have also accused Gendzhev of selling “waqf properties” and of being involved in the so-called “Revival Process” when the Communist Party changed the names of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, allegedly with his blessing.

Other accusations towards Gendzhev are of not having any religious education and that before becoming involved with religion he has been an agent of the Communist State Security in Bulgaria.

Ironically, after being reinstated, Gendzhev said that he will work for the unity of the Muslims and “will not allow splits in the Muslim community”.

Are there behind-the-curtain intrigues in the case of the Muslims against Nedim Gendzhev? Most probably.

Will a solution to the problem with the leadership of the Bulgarian Muslim community be found soon? It is hard to say. Maybe the EU institutions will be able to provide one. Or maybe the Bulgarian authorities, especially the Minister without Portfolio, Bozhidar Dimitrov, will finally honor the will of the Bulgarian Muslims.

What is certain for now is that the Muslims will not stop protesting against Gendzhev’s reinstatement. They have promised even more active protests during the holiest month of the Islamic calendar - Ramadan.

One thing is certain - this case might serve as a civil activism lesson to all Bulgarians. It demonstrates that if you are convinced that a decision is unjust, you have the right and the means to fight to change it.

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Serbia has tabled a resolution at the UN calling for thorough dialogue on all open questions regarding the status of Kosovo, amid staunch opposition by key Security Council members, reports Serbian news agency Blic.

Last week Serbian President Boris Tadic and foreign minister Vuk Jeremic announced that Serbia does not regard the decision of UN International Court of Justice that Kosovo's declaration of independence does not breach international law as referring to a right to secession and vowed that the matter should be settled by the UN General Assembly.

The Serbian government stance received full parliamentary support at home.

According to information by Blic, the Serbian UN resolution met fierce opposition by Great Britain. The USA, France and Germany further considered it inadmissible that the text includes the words "unilateral secession."

Blic says that US and UK embassies in Belgrade have refused to comment the matter.

Sources have said that it is inadmissible for the US and the big EU countries that further talks on the status of Kosovo are initiated.

Serbia has reportedly hurried in introducing the resolution in order to be the first to table a draft General Assembly statement on the matter of Kosovo and the ICJ decision.

Blic further reports that talks for a common position between Serbia and the EU have not given any results, and that there are no indications of a bid to speed up EU-accession of Serbia.

Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic is in New York to hold talks on Kosovo with UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon.

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Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a fundamental human right, proclaimed the UN General Assembly, settling a debate that has continued for 15 years at the UN.

The resolution, tabled by Bolivia, received 122 votes in favor, with none against and 41abstaning, out of UN's 192 member-states.

The UN resolution declares that safe water and sanitation are “essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights.”

It also voices strong concern that about 900 M people across the globe lack access to clean water, and a staggering 2.6 B do not have proper sanitation.

It is estimated that this is leading to 2 M deaths yearly, mainly of small children.

The UN calls upon all states to steep up efforts to change that dire situation, setting a target of halving the number of people with inadequate access to water by 2015.

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Pakistan is observing a day of national mourning on Thursday after a plane crashed in hills north of the capital, Islamabad, in the country's worst-ever air disaster.

An Airbus A321 crashed as it was about to land in the capital Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board.

The domestic flight from the southern city of Karachi was operated by the private Pakistani airline Airblue, which has a good safety record.

The cause of the crash is not known yet.

The plane - with 146 passengers and six crew on board - was flying at an extremely low level before crashing into the Margalla hills north of the capital, eyewitnesses said.

Airblue spokesman Raheel Ahmed told reporters that the crash had been "an extremely tragic incident" and the plane had no history of technical problems.

It was leased by Airblue in January 2006 and had accumulated about 34,000 flight hours.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said 115 bodies had been recovered, but bad weather and difficult terrain had hampered recovery efforts.

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The burly or, some would say, just fat cab driver is reading some of them cheap, bad-quality papers in his taxi parked in front of a large mall in downtown Sofia when a jeep with a tinted windshield slowly pulls over, and four young muscular guys in dark clothes get out of it.

The cab driver doesn't realize yet what is about to happen. His bald forehead is sweating in the summer heat. His bushy beard, nasty face, and large bronze chains on his neck give him looks that many consider scary.

Not the four guys in dark suits. The first one of them opens the cabbie's door and with one swift motion pulls the 130-kg driver out of the car. Next think you know, the driver is in on the ground lying in a puddle of his own blood. It takes the four guys 2-3 minutes to – as it turns out – to “punish” him.

One shouldn't really bother asking why none of the hundreds of passers-by intervened to help the poor cabbie with the bad-ass looks.

For one thing, the four guys did what they came for pretty quickly and efficiently, and just as quickly – though without creating the impression of being in a hurry – got back in their jeep and drove away. For another, they must be clearly some kind of sportsmen-turned-gangsters that regular Bulgarians do shy away from wanting to deal with.

But why didn't any of the 30-40 other taxi drivers witnessing the scene intervene to help their colleague?

...

Taxi drivers, at least in Sofia, are not the kind of guys who are afraid. Not even of the so called “mutri” - the stereotypical antroponym for Bulgarian gangsters from the 1990s, most of whom used to be talented wrestlers back in the communist days.

“Get out of the f... way, you m... f...,” shouted the driver of the taxi that I took home one night. It was well past midnight, and we got stuck in a kind of a traffic jam in one of the narrow downtown Sofia streets lined with hundreds of parked cars on both sides because a black jeep had pulled over right there on the street.

“You sold a kilo of heroin, bought a jeep, and you think you're a big deal, ha!,” kept shouting the cabbie at the driver of the jeep adding all sorts of really nasty insults and swearwords. The black jeep slowly moved forward, and made a turn at the first crossroads.

“Did you see that? They are scared of us,” the gleeful taxi driver told mе explaining that even a mid-level Sofia gangster would be afraid of him and his colleagues because they have the means to wedge him in with their cars almost immediately, and then to proceed to other forms of street justice.

“We are disciplining them! These are disciplinary measures. But they know better by now. If he had gotten out of the car to mess with me, I would've brought here 50 cars in 2 minutes. We could just get his car stuck here, and he won't have anything to do,” said the taxi driver explaining to me the mechanism through which the Sofia cabbies would “discipline” the mutri or anybody else of the sort.

The cabs in Sofia could easily become something like the mechanized units of the Wehrmacht – they are highly mobile, highly organized, and highly united. At one point in the late 1990s they blockaded the downtown and nearly brought down the Bulgarian government after breaking news that the 5-year-old son of one of their colleagues was kidnapped from the hands of his mother. This later proved to be false (the mentally unstable mother was found to have killed the kid) but then Prime Minister Kostov had very tough several hours dealing with the taxi blitzkrieg.

So the Sofia cabbies are not afraid. Many of them can be nice, many of them can be bad, but all of them have seen too much. Why did they abandon that poor driver with the bad-ass looks to be thrashed?

...

The answer is simple. He is not one of them. He is a solo player. He belongs to no taxi firm. He works for himself – with all the risks ensuing from this status. He is what the others call in Bulgaria “shanadzhiya” - or a “hustler” in plain American English. In Bulgaria, the term is most often used for drug dealers who try to be independent and to work for nobody but it also goes for this special kind of taxi drivers.

This is exactly the kind of taxi driver in whose car you don't want to end up in Sofia, especially if you are a foreigner, and especially if your nice looks create the impression that you might have some money.

Ask former Greens MEP David Hammerstein who in October 2008 got charged BGN 105 for a taxi ride from the Sofia International Airport to the Dondukov Blvd in the downtown. It was rather sad yet somewhat funny to see the nice but outraged MEP hold on to his receipt hoping that it would help him find some kind of justice. The receipt, of course, turned out to be fake, from a non-existing firm.

“This case with the taxi was my first impression from Bulgaria. I told the Transport Minister about it today but he said that he couldn't do anything about it,” Hammerstein told the Bulgarian papers. His MEP colleagues and he said upon leaving that they were shocked by the lawlessness reigning in Bulgaria.

Or ask the nice American woman who called the police when the taxi driver demanded BGN 250 for driving her from the airport to the downtown. The policemen, of course, couldn't do anything as the woman supposedly agreed to the crazy rate of the cab driver when she got in the taxi. Just for the record, the distance from the Sofia Airport to the downtown is no more than 10-12 km.

This crime becomes even more brutal in the numerous cases daily in which poor Bulgarians from the rural provinces coming to visit a sick family member in a Sofia hospital get tricked into a rogue taxi. In that case chances are the hustler will get the family's only money that is supposed to buy medicines for the sick family member.

So why did those four muscular chaps beat the heck out of that hustler cabbie? Did they want to force him to join their taxi firm? Or were they just a racketeering squad? None of the above, I am told by one of the witnesses, a cabbie from one of the decent Sofia taxi companies that don't overcharge their clients.

...

The reason for his beating lies with the hustler's tactics. He doesn't pick up many clients daily. But he is very much like a predator stalking his prey who then skins it completely after catching it.

Most people from Sofia are generally aware of the rogue taxis and avoid them. Most people who come from outside of Sofia, however, have a very high chance of falling into the trap. Sometimes Sofia residents could end up in a rogue cab, too, by not paying enough attention as the hustler is skillful at employing mimicry. So the regular cabbie might drive around the city all day, while the hustler may spend hours waiting but still make the same BGN 50 or BGN 100 – from just one client.

Even if the victim realizes before they reached their destination are given a hefty bill – or just demanded orally to pay one that they got into a rogue taxi, even if they figure it out during the ride, it is usually too late to avoid the ripoff, unless they are very courageous.

Because the hustler would most often and most likely try to intimidate you. He would start telling stories about how he was in prison, or how he got that scar or that tattoo. One can't tell if these stories are true – but they might as well be.

Sure, there are ways for the potential victim to resist but if it is a teenager, an elderly person, a woman, a guy from outside of Sofia who just came to the “big city,” or, especially, a nice, cultured Westerner, the most likely result will be that the hustler will get what they want.

So, once again, back to the beating of the fat, bald, bearded cabbie in front of the mall in downtown Sofia. What was he punished for?

...

It turns out the day before two attractive young girls got in his taxi without realizing what they had gotten themselves into. During the ride the hustler shocked them with scary stories about his time in prison, etc, so when they reached their destination they were intimidated enough and paid the BGN 60 he asked from them.

Yet, the young ladies were pretty outraged. Unluckily for the cab driver, one of them turned out to be the girlfriend of... let's just say, a well-connected man. A man who, as it happened, could send in a punitive squad. All the girl had to do was to memorize the license plate number of the hustler, and thus she allowed her boyfriend to “protect” her “consumer rights,” though in an unorthodox way, at least as far as Western standards are concerned.

The four energetic chaps who went to punish the hustler did not get any money from him, they just wanted to hurt him. In that case, it was not about money. It was more about honor. Or about “consumer gratification”.

This true story (as are the other facts mentioned above) did not end up in a police investigation. It is only left in the memory of the Sofia cab drivers – both the proper and the rogue ones. And they actually have much more shocking true stories. One just can't help but wonder who is the victim in these circumstances – the “good” taxi firms, the clients, even the hustlers, or even those customers who can afford to use gangster justice?

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One thing is for sure – the legal and law enforcement system in the city of Sofia is pretty rotten as far as the taxi services are concerned. And don't even get me started about the situation elsewhere in the country – especially along the Black Sea coast where the hustler cabbies have a lot more foreigners to take advantage of – and they do all the time.

There is at least some hope for Sofia. The Sofia Municipality and the Transport Ministry recently announced that they will move to introduce a ceiling of the rate charged per km by the cabbies. It is this announcement that provoked this article.

This regulation will technically be in power in the entire country as it will be part of the national legislation but my guess is that it stands a fair chance of being properly enforced in Sofia, and little chance of being enforced in the Black Sea resorts. The price ceiling for the taxi service is still unclear as the taxi companies and the authorities will have to agree on a formula to determine it.

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Until that new taxi regulation materializes, if it ever does, you should, especially if you are a foreigner arriving to Sofia, keep in mind that the decent taxi companies offer rates of about BGN 0.55-0.60 per km during the day, and of about BGN 0.70 per km at night (10 pm-6 am).

Thus, you shouldn't be asked to pay more than BGN 12-14 from the Sofia Airport to the downtown. Some of the hustler cabbies stalking their prey in front of the airport would ask for BGN 7.5/8.6 per km, which will automatically bring your 15-20-minute ride to the cost of a dinner for four in a nice Sofia restaurant.

The reasonably-priced – or cheap – services are one of Bulgaria's advantages as a tourist destination. The rogue cabs, however, are one of its disadvantages. There are about 5000-6000 legal taxis in Sofia but nobody knows how many the rogue ones are. According to the National Union of Taxi Companies, about 10% of cabs in Sofia are rogue, i.e. they will charge you the same prices as a low-cost airline.

They are essentially criminal structures, even though they usually act independently or in very small groups, which the authorities must crack down upon. There seems to be some hope that this might happen in Sofia, while this is rather unlikely in the Black Sea cities and resorts.

So if you are a foreigner in Bulgaria who has to get a taxi, your best bet is to have somebody local whom you trust pick a cab for you. Unless, of course, you don't care how much you spend, and don't care this money will end up in the hands of a nasty hustler.

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