Tag: Bulgaria

The European Commission strongly denied today (28 August) media reports that EU funds, allocated to Bulgaria and Romania to help improve the situation of their Roma, would be re-directed to Germany, where many members of the minority have moved.

Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva expressed concern yesterday (23 July) about the political situation in Bulgaria, her home country, where anti-government protests turned violent on their 40th day.

The two largest political groups in the European Parliament, left and right, have called on Bulgaria's new Socialist-led government to distance itself from the nationalist extremist party Ataka.

Lithuania, which takes over the EU's rotating Presidency on 1 July, is not optimistic regarding the much-protracted accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen borderless area, the country’s envoy to Brussels said yesterday (18 June). 

Judges in Bulgaria are sanctioned not when they commit a violation, but when they disobey, writes Ivanka Ivanova.

Bulgaria's new Socialist-led government won a parliamentary vote of confidence yesterday (29 May), ending months of political impasse but lacking the broad backing that may be required to steer the economy and attract much needed investment.

Bulgarians voted on Sunday (12 May) to send four parties to the 240-seat parliament, but with preliminary results showing a horse race between the two leading political blocs, analysts doubted that the party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov stood little chance of forming a government.

The European Commission has responded coldly to calls from four EU ministers to curb so-called ‘benefits tourism’ by introducing rules prohibiting EU nationals expelled for benefits fraud from returning.

Two German conservative MEPs on Wednesday (10 April) accused Romania’s Socialist government of hindering Bulgaria and Romania’s entry into the Schengen area, contradicting Berlin’s statements that the two nations were weak on justice and corruption.

Marking International Roma Day, the European Commission on Monday (8 April) urged member countries to ensure that NGOs representing Roma are involved in the planning and use of EU funds for integration into society.

Gazprom Neft holds a 56% stake in NIS, the largest energy company in Serbia, but the company vows to do business “outside politics” and support the country’s EU integration, Kirill Kravchenko, CEO of NIS, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

This week's EU summit (14-15 March) will see four new faces, even though just five weeks have elapsed since the 7-8 February summit. Resignations and elections have brought Slovenia and Malta new prime ministers and Cyprus a new president, while Bulgaria will be represented by the president ahead of an imminent poll.

Bulgarian President Rossen Plevneliev said yesterday (6 March) in Brussels that his country had the resources to spend more on social programmes to address the country's political, social and economic crises.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov resigned today (20 February) following boisterous public protests in the capital and several other cities over the price of electricity.

Tens of thousands of Bulgarians protested in more than 20 cities on Sunday (17 February) against high electricity bills and called for Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and his centre-right government to resign. [Watch photo gallery by Dnevnik, the EurActiv partner in Bulgaria.]

The European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, has launched an investigation into allegations that €50,000 in rural development funding was due to be paid for opening and running a Facebook page and a Twitter account in Bulgaria, EurActiv has learned.

The European Parliament debated for nearly two hours yesterday (6 February) the state of democracy in Bulgaria, a country described as the "weak link" in the EU and a threat to European values across the continent.

Please don't come to Britain – it rains and the jobs are scarce and low-paid. This is the message conveyed in a campaign intended at trashing the UK's own image and persuading immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania to stay at home.

Sir Graham Watson, president of the European Liberal Democrats, voiced concern about the state of democracy in Bulgaria after he witnessed an assassination attempt on a fellow party leader in Sofia on Saturday (19 January).

The policy of denying Bulgarian and Romanian students employment in Britain is unfair. But that’s not the real issue. The point is it is breaching EU law too, says Galina Kostadinova.

Future energy relations between Bulgaria and Russia could be decided on 15 November, the deadline for Bulgaria to sign a deal to build the South Stream gas pipeline across its territory. European officials say they are closely watching the developments but don’t see South Stream as a priority. 

The European Commission on Wednesday (31 October) threatened to publish an extraordinary monitoring report on Bulgaria's ailing judicial system, hours after lawmakers in Sofia appointed a controversial figure to the country’s Constitutional Court despite EU warnings.

Bulgarians will vote on whether to build a new nuclear power plant in the Balkan country's first referendum since the fall of communism in 1989, Parliament has decided.

A bridge linking Bulgaria and Romania that was financed in part with EU cohesion funds is due to open within a month, although a deal on joint management of the River Danube span has not yet been set up.