So Schengen at last! At noon this Tuesday I hopped in my car in my hometown of Ruse and left for Bucharest to run some errands. This would have been my first trip to the Romanian capital after the two countries' entry into the European free travel zone last week.
It's a fact of life in the Balkans that the 75 kilometers that divide my home and the city center of Bucharest, which would have taken half an hour with a train in Austria, usually take about 2-2.5 hours of driving, depending on the time of the day. Now, however, with barriers lifted and the previously bustling border control booths on the Giurgu side almost eerily empty (I was welcomed by a lone stray dog), I slid into Romania without seeing any of the usual long queues of trucks that occupy entirely one of the lanes. I made it into Bucharest in an hour-and-a half! By 6 PM, I was back home.
This was one of those illuminating moments when you suddenly realise the world is, actually, changing. Ruse - whose infrastructural connectivity to the rest of Bulgaria has been consistently and persistently ignored and whose pace and population has been gradually declining - will finally become a semi-district of one of the bustling cities of the CEE region! Seems an exciting business and life possibility. Romania is also starting to build a fast train connection to Giurgu, to be ready by the end of this decade - something which Bulgaria is not even planning. Competition is the name of the game in the EU, after all.
Then I was suddenly reminded of the reality we inhabit. This is, after all, the Balkans. Nothing ever changes that fast.
On the next day, the short-lived joy of Ruse dwellers was cut short, as the news came of the resumption of the repairs on the rusting Danube bridge, combined with the reintroduction of semi-privatized truck queuing at the parking lot. This means it will be very hard to cross the bridge over the course of the next year at least. And if you are a truck driver, you will still be forced by the local authorities to queue in line because of the Bulgarian 'underground', whose bosses own the local parking.
So next time we go to Bucharest for work or to catch a flight, my fellow townspeople and I will be stuck in line once again, while truck drivers from Turkey to Ukraine will, alongside queuing to cross the bridge, undergo their usual state-sponsored racketeering.
So there. Good things happen, yet bad intentions still rule the day around here. Make no mistake - Ruse will get connected to the nearest capital willing to take it under its wing (since Sofia has been more than hostile for a while now) and that will change the dynamics of the region. Not yet. But soon.
This newsletter is co-written by
@Ognyan Georgiev
POLITICS THIS WEEK
If Schrodinger led the cabinet talks
On Sunday GERB announced the termination of the negotiations for a government because of the decision of Democratic Bulgaria to not accept their PM candidates - Boyko Borissov or Rosen Zhelyazkov. Then on Wednesday the party announced that it had resumed negotiations, but only with the other two parties - the socialist BSP and the minor TISP.
I would, if you will
Now, DB (which are by far the preferred partner of GERB), are officially out. Yet both parties still look as if they are doing a strange dance: GERB promised to support the changes in the judicial law that would stop the election of Borislav Sarafov as Prosecutor General, as well as the changes in the Electoral Code proposed by DB (more on these - below). In response, DB voted with them, and not with their former partners from We Continue the Change, in the Budget committee.
So, where are we?
DB reiterated its position that a coalition agreement should be negotiated first, and then negotiations for a prime minister. The GERB-friendly media then leaks info about a potential government agreement only with BSP and TISP. Yet you should take this with a grain of salt: Borissov usually does this when he wants to force the hand of the other side. We would judge we're somewhere halfway between a new coalition and new elections.
And, speaking of new elections, they might come with new rules
Establishing regional counting centers (instead of counting in each school), bringing back the machine protocol for reporting results and introducing scanning devices for counting paper ballots, as well as (finally) active voter registration. These are just some of the proposals of the parliamentary parties for changes to the Electoral Code. There are 4 different projects by 4 different parties and they were all approved by the Legal committee on Tuesday after the topic surprisingly entered their discourse. They appear also to be part of the negotiations to form a government and might make it or break it, depending on what happens with the cabinet talks themselves.
And what about the Prosecutor General?
The fact that the choice of Sarafov officially became a bargaining chip in the negotiation process hardly surprises anyone. This could drag on - well beyond January 16, when the election of a new prosecutor general is scheduled, because his final appointment depends on President Rumen Radev, and he has no deadline to do that. Thus, the governance of the country remains hostage to the unfinished business of the parties to pass a judicial reform
ECONOMY The draft budget for 2025 is rejected
In its first meeting, the Budget and Finance Committee almost unanimously threw out the heavily criticised draft budget for 2025 and its tax laws (including zero VAT rates for bread and flour and lower VAT for restaurants) from its agenda, voting only the law extending the budget for 2024 at first reading.
There is little doubt that the budget extension law will pass a plenary vote quickly. What is more unclear is what will happen to the 2025 budget itself, given the ongoing political chaos, the uncertain outcome of the government negotiations and the likelihood that the country is heading for another election.
Business wants state subsidies
January 1 marked the end of the 4-year long energy subsidy which all businesses received - first because of the pandemic and then because of the war. Yet that's a good example of how you can easily get used to a good thing. There is now a national protest planned demanding the return of the state aid, with businesses claiming they need it to survive. This is likely a false assertion on their part. But, if it's true, it's immensely worrying.
Figures
400 million levs
The (record-high) amount of the tender for the supply and installation of verges in the South Central and South West regions of the country published by the Road agency this week.
BUSINESS Manufacturing
Sparky
The state-owned Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), which five years ago financed the buyer of the assets of the virtually bankrupt Ruse machine-building plant Sparky, is offering its receivables from the new owner for sale. Through an assignment, the lender will try to collect at least some of the funds it used to finance the deal at the time in an attempt to clean up bad loans previously made to the troubled factory.
Agriculture
BG Agro
The owner and founder of the agricultural holding Nenko Nenkov is attempting to buy all the shares of the public company. Nenkov, who owns about 90 percent of the company, is offering 1.10 levs per share to acquire the remaining 10 percent, according to a January 3 Bulgarian Stock Exchange filing. The company is valued at 44 million levs.
M&A
SoftwareOne
The Swiss technology company announced late last month plans to buy Norway's Crayon Group for USD 1.4 billion, which is expected to create a significant European provider of software and cloud solutions. Both companies have offices in Bulgaria with a total of over 170 employees. Their representatives declined to comment on the merger at this stage, arguing that it is too early to tell how the deal will affect the companies in the country
ENERGY
Almost 1,000 MW of new solars in 2024Despite the controversy over the future of the Green Deal, interest in the development of new renewable energy sources (RES) in Bulgaria is not abating. In 2024 alone, 481 new solar parks with a total capacity of 938 MW have been commissioned. Roughly speaking, this is as much as one unit of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, according to a report by the Electricity System Operator (ESO) prepared for Capita weekly.
By comparison, more than 1,200 MW of photovoltaics were added in 2023. And, according to the Agency for Sustainable Energy Development (ASED), the installed photovoltaic capacity in Bulgaria is already over 3,600 MW. It seems that the construction of more new solar plants will continue in 2025, albeit at a slower pace. The applications for connection to the distribution grid of the new RES until the end of 2024 were 330 with a total capacity of 707.3 MW.
KazMunayGas bids for Lukoil refinery
The Kazakhstan National Company has submitted a bid for the purchase of Lukoil Neftochim Burgas in excess of USD 1 billion. This was reported by Bloomberg news agency on Tuesday, citing two sources familiar with the negotiations. The agency quoted analysts who described this price as low - obviously not many revamped refineries come up for sale in the EU, especially after the Russian company invested over 1.5 bln euro in the last couple of years.
The Kazakh company is among the leading bidders for the refinery, while the others include Hungary's MOL. It is not yet clear when final bids for the Burgas refinery will be submitted, but according to Capital weekly, the deadline is approaching
PEOPLE
Albert Popov
The short, but unstoppable skier, made history this week by winning the start of the Ski World Cup in Italy. Popov made a fantastic second run in Madonna di Campiglio and ended up winning the slalom for the first time ever. It's been 45 years to the day when Bulgaria last had a skier in first place in the Ski Cup. This marks the progress Popov made from taking his first podium in 2023 to winning this week. There's a lot more the 27-year old can show on the ski-run, we hope.
Milena Todorova
Is another skier who won big this week. The Bulgarian biathlon runner finished third in the German part of the World Cup, marking the first time we have someone in the top 3 of the Biathlon Cup for 20 years. Seems like good times lie ahead for Bulgarian skiing
DATE
10 January
From this week, Sofia Airport has a new system for traffic control and parking. The so-called kiss-and-ride zone in front of the airport will allow for only 10 minute drop-offs, with any additional minute charged heftily. If you want to take your time, you would need to park in the nearby parking lots for 5 levs/hour.
LOCATION
Plovdiv
Is a place to avoid in the next few days, given the high concentration of dust particles in the air. The municipality warned the citizens of the dangers and then shrugged it off, saying they should "stick to the guidelines of the Health Service". No talk at all about banning cars or doing anything for dangerous heating devices some of its citizens use. I think you will find it useful to know that there is a measure Plovdiv thinks about from time to time: banning cars older than 25 years.
INSTITUTION
The Fire Brigades
Watching LA burn is an unsettling and disturbing sight. Not only because X is full of shocking inexplicable videos (like this one), and because Elon Musk is raging against the governor and the mayor, but because it reminds us yet again about the sudden power nature can unleash at any given moment. One of the reasons for this was the constant understaffing and underfunding of the fire brigades in the county, partly because millionaires obviously don't want to pay too much tax.
Which reminds me of something else: we've talked about climate change and how fires are much more common in large areas of the country in the summer. Fire brigades here are constantly understaffed, so the best thing you can do is find the nearest volunteer organization and apply there. This will prove to be a worthwhile investment of your time, believe meWORD OF THE WEEK
Старостилни - Old StyleIs the name of an Orthodox church that wants to be registered as Bulgarian Old Style Orthodox Church. It signifies their decision to stick to the Julian calendar, instead of switching to the Gregorian, which happened back in the 60s. They see this as a way to subvert the Orthodox tradition. The communist powers which were controlling the Bulgarian Church saw this as a problem and didn't like them very much. After communism fell, they tried to register several times unsuccessfully.
Now the courts decided they could do so. Yet this fired up a hysterical debate in Parliament, whereby deputies and government officials were claiming this is an attempt to subvert the Church and decided, against all laws and in a secular state, to not allow this
So Schengen at last! At noon this Tuesday I hopped in my car in my hometown of Ruse and left for Bucharest to run some errands. This would have been my first trip to the Romanian capital after the two countries' entry into the European free travel zone last week.
It's a fact of life in the Balkans that the 75 kilometers that divide my home and the city center of Bucharest, which would have taken half an hour with a train in Austria, usually take about 2-2.5 hours of driving, depending on the time of the day. Now, however, with barriers lifted and the previously bustling border control booths on the Giurgu side almost eerily empty (I was welcomed by a lone stray dog), I slid into Romania without seeing any of the usual long queues of trucks that occupy entirely one of the lanes. I made it into Bucharest in an hour-and-a half! By 6 PM, I was back home.
