The week: Where is the data?

Today, the loss of access to this level of detail is seen by specialists as a major setback for oncology in Bulgaria. This is, mind you, the country with the lowest 5-year survival rate in the EU.

This is just one of the examples of vital data missing. The blogger and data specialist Boyan Yurukov recently showed how data on newborns were skewed and not reliable. And that is not very difficult data to get.

The Interior Ministry is supposed, in theory, to have all sorts of data on crime. It is, however, a Sisyphian task to acquire those and even if you do, they are rarely useful, as various data points are omitted. To give an example - an 18-year-old recently compiled a data map of all the fatal car accidents in Bulgaria in the past 5 years, using open data.

The data on income levels in the cities themselves is something the NRA is supposed to have. Good luck convincing them to share it. The National Statistics recently tried for the first time to gather for their census some data on consumption and commuting patterns, but managed only partially.

And don't even get me started on the official salary rates - it is a public secret that they are unreliable, because people are contracted on lower social security levels, or get a lot of money under the table. This is one reason why Bulgaria keeps recording the lowest pay grades in the EU, yet consumption-wise is on par with Estonia.

Good data is essential to good policymaking. The biggest lack is felt on the local level, where mayors fly blind in many cases, as there is no reliable data for almost nothing in intervals shorter than a year. That's why I'm extremely hopeful for centers like GATE institute and enthusiasts like the 18-year-old boy or Yurukov. They are all doing a marvelous job (from the bottom and the top) at shining light where darkness lay. They are also pushing the institutions to do more: the Interior ministry announced it will put out a live map on car traffic in the country (though it didn't say when, exactly, that will happen).

But until more of them pile in, take statistics with tongue in cheek.

Politics this week:

Just four years ago, at the end of summer 2021, two former caretaker ministers in the first caretaker cabinet appointed by President Rumen Radev, relatively fresh faces in Bulgarian politics, entered the popular arena with a bang. In their three months in office, they exposed some important malpractices in the institutions they governed and decided to take advantage of the momentum they created (and the vacuum in power at the time) to start their own party - We Continue the Change (WCC).

It was supposed to be a centrist project with anti-corruption aspirations that would not be limited by the anti-communist/leftist paradigm that guided the other anti-graft faction of the day, Democratic Bulgaria. It got so high off the ground, that they beat the heavyweight GERB (of Boyko Borissov) and formed a government.

Bombshell in Sofia

Four years later, WCC is in a state of freefall. The party got engulfed in allegations of rigging public procurements in Sofia's district municipalities. Two district mayors and two municipal councilors left the party with the first-ever allegation we've heard from a Bulgarian politician: that someone wanted to corrupt him. There were secret recordings of compromising conversations that got leaked to the media. A deputy mayor of Sofia got handcuffed and charged with bribery. All in all - a shitstorm.

Petkov takes the fall

A day after the start of the scandal, the co-chairman of the party and ex-PM Kiril Petkov took the blame. He stood completely alone in front of the media and said he's resigning from the party and Parliament - not for the potential corruption, which he says needs to be proven, but for his leadership failure when it comes to recruiting people for senior roles. While the cadre policy of WCC has been anything but brilliant, to say the least - it is still strange why a party leader and former Prime Minister would just resign over some mid-echelon corruption allegations linked to his party.

Change discontinued?

It all left the impression of a marooned captain of a sinking ship. There were a handful of other resignations in the days that followed. WCC - a party that was in government a year ago and has come second in a coalition in the last elections, now looks doomed. This has been the worst PR handling of a crisis we have witnessed.

The monopoly on corruption

It all sounds rather familiar. Ten years ago, during the first bleep of public discontent against GERB, Mladost district of Sofia chose a protest mayor. Desislava Ivancheva ruled for a while in a hostile environment, forgetting completely she was a sheep amongst the wolves - an amateur player in an environment where corruption is monopolized. Ivancheva ended up handcuffed for hours on a boulevard, charged with corruption, again with recorded conversations and construction companies, and spent years in jail.

WCC was supposed to be smarter and cleaner. Yet it seems they also forgot the primary rule of Bulgarian politics: there is a monopoly on corruption and it is clear who controls it.

Speaking of which, Borissov triumphs

WCC now looks shaken and weak, Sofia - their biggest fortress, is open for the taking. The problem is how to do it without turning Vasil Terziev into a martyr. Which GERB obviously haven't figured out yet.

Economy:

The Bulgarian medical system is in meltdown: the shortage of nurses has reached such alarming proportions that the entire healthcare system is on the verge of collapse. They are the cogs in the complex healthcare machine that keep it running, and in many places they are no longer there. Or to put it simply: there is no one to care for sick Bulgarians. According to a Capital Weekly inquiry, there are fewer than 30,000 nurses working in the country, while there must be at least 90,000. What is more, over the past ten years, the number of nurses has shrunk by 30%. Their average age is over 50, and 20% of them should already be retired.

"Struma" Motorway will finally be completed

A design is being sought for the last section of the "Struma" motorway toward Greece, bypassing the ecologically sensitive Kresna Gorge. The planned route will span between 20 and 25 km, running parallel to the already commissioned section toward Sofia, located east of the gorge. The tender for the conceptual design is valued at 2.5 million levs, with a submission deadline set for July 20. This will mark the end of a nearly 20-year battle between environmentalists and the Regional ministry on the gorge.

Bulgaria Takes Major Step Toward Crypto Regulation

Bulgaria has made a decisive move toward regulating the crypto industry. Late last week, the National Assembly passed the Law on the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) at second reading with a strong majority. The law transposes the EU's MiCA regulation into Bulgarian legislation, effectively making European rules directly applicable in the country. The new legal framework officially introduces terms such as "crypto-asset" and "token", and sets out the conditions for the public offering and trading of crypto-assets, licensing of issuers and service providers, and state oversight of the sector. FSC will be the Lead Crypto Market Regulator; BNB to Oversee E-Money Tokens.

Figures:

The profits recorded by the State Electric Company (NEK) in 2024. Despite its good results, however, NEK admits to financial problems.

260 million levs

The amount National Revenue Agency (NRA) reported it had collected from debtors who settled overdue liabilities in order to complete real estate transactions. This follows amendments to the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code in May last year, which require notaries, registry judges, and relevant officials to check with the NRA for outstanding debts before processing property sales.

Business:

The company, which was founded in January this year and has no real business behind it, will now try to raise capital from the stock exchange, which it will then invest in companies listed on the BSE. It plans to offer 10.5 million new shares at a price of 1.1 levs, with which it aims to raise 11.5 million levs.

Manufacturing

The first IPO on the BSE in 2025 was a success - the hydrolysis equipment manufacturer managed to raise 8 million levs by selling 400,000 shares priced at 19.90 levs. The funds will be invested in inventory, expansion of production and personnel, as well as entering new markets in Western Europe.

RES

The largest integrated energy producer in Southeast Europe is entering the renewable energy market in Bulgaria by acquiring half of the 400 MW Gabare solar project, which is to be built in Byala Slatina (between Pleven and Vratsa).

Airport Handling

The handling operator was banned from working at Sofia airport after a few hundred people were left stranded in a corridor for over an hour. Its personnel will be absorbed by competing ground-handling providers. Meanwhile, passengers arriving from non-Schengen destinations will be transported directly by bus to border control, bypassing the use of jet bridges.

Watch out for:

In just a few days, on July 5, Koshlukov will mark his second three-year term as director general of BNT without having been elected for it. And he will begin a third term, to which he is not legally entitled, all due to a legal case that has been stuck in court for almost three years now, without any outlook for its resolution. But this is no longer a surprise; in Bulgaria, terms of office have become optional, at the behest of those who orchestrate the behind-the-scenes staffing of key positions in the state.

Dates:

A small Bulgarian Jazz fest will take over one of Plovdiv hills - with concerts beginning in the foothills and going all the way up.

28.07- 12.09

Opera Open - the largest open-air Opera festival in Bulgaria begins, in Plovdiv Amphitheater.

03-06 July

This year's edition of the international jazz festival A to JazZ, now in its 14th consecutive year, will offer four days of rich and genre-diverse programming with 12 international groups, premieres of new albums, and performances by young talents. It will take place in the section of South Park near Park Center. See the full program and accompanying activities here.

Location:

Is gonna be put on concession again, after the Council of Ministers approved the inclusion of several strategic assets in the country's updated Concession Action Plan for 2021-2027. The list now also features the port terminal in Tutrakan, and the ferry terminal in Silistra.

Company:

Kaya