Giwrgos Kapodistrias
From: bulgaria@access3.digex.net (Embassy of Bulgaria)
Subject: BTA inf/Mar. 29, 95
EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY
BULLETIN OF NEWS FROM BULGARIA MARCH 29, 1995
The performance of the Socialist Government in its first two months in office and its short-term policy were outlined by Prime Minister Zhan Videnov in a televised talk show this evening, hosted by Mr Vladimir Kostov, Editor-in-Chief of the "Continent" daily. "We did a lot but we could have done more," said Mr Videnov, assessing his Government's achievements in the first 60 days in power. The main objective which the Cabinet sets itself this year is recovery of production and containment of inflation, the Prime Minister said. The Government projects an economic growth of 3 - 4 per cent without this having a financially destabilizing effect on the country. "In addition, the immiseration of the population must be drastically reduced, and if we achieve zero immiseration for certain segments of the population, say, the pensioners, I will be extremely pleased," Mr Videnov said. In his view the Government has a chance to achieve this on the basis of a common understanding with the social partners on the incomes policy and a first quarter inflation of 10 per cent. Asked whether the Government is really prepared to stake on private businessmen, the Prime Minister said that in a country like Bulgaria, weak and dependent on external factors, the State cannot afford to withdraw from the economy, it has no right to shirk the responsibilities in a number of sectors such as energy, transport, communications, agriculture. "As to agriculture, the State is ready to help private enterprise there," Mr Videnov said. "In crime control our foremost priority is to crack down on its most brutal acts on the street and in homes," the Prime Minister said, asked what the Government is doing about it. According to Mr Videnov, policemen can already feel the authority of power and people's trust, and considerable resources have been allocated for law enforcement. Fighting white-collar crime and corruption is more difficult. Crime should be attacked at its social roots, the Prime Minister believes. In its foreign policy, the Government of Bulgaria will pursue participation in European integration and promotion of the Balkan peace process. Finally, the interviewer did not spare Mr Videnov a question about the war of words between the Government and the President, which has been waged for a couple of days now and which was dubbed "the war of the institutions" by the media. "It takes two to fight a war, and I don't intend to get involved in anything of the sort," the Prime Minister answered. He recalled, however, that it all started with accusations levelled by the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) at the Socialist Government that it covers up illegal activities of a certain economic group. Reacting to this allegation, Mr Videnov told Parliament that the group in question (the private conglomerate Multigroup) financed the election campaign of Dr Zhelyu Zhelev, who ran for president as UDF candidate. The Presidential Spokesman denied this disclosure, triggering a bout of recriminations and documentary proofs. "This is a dangerous speculation and we cannot remain indifferent to it, because the economic groups were in the ranks of our political opponents," Mr Videnov said this evening. "I cannot agree that now we should be regarded as two sides of the same medal. I have every right to demand satisfaction, but I will keep cool," Mr Videnov said in conclusion.
Sofia, March 28 (Ani Parmaksizyan of BTA) - "The Medicines and Pharmacies Bill is a modern bill, which has been approved by experts of European Union member states and the World Health Organization," Health Minister Mimi Vitkova told a news conference here today. The Bill was put up for second reading debates at Parliament.
Minister Vitkova also mentioned controversial texts in the Bill which concern pharmacies. The Bill names pharmacists as the only people allowed to open pharmacies. It introduces a ban for running more than one pharmacy and set up pharmacy chains, which is a common practice in Bulgaria now. There are about 3,170 pharmacies in Bulgaria, 800 of which are owned by the state. Some 40 per cent of the private ones are owned by pharmacists, the rest being run by physicians and non-medics.
Prices of medicines in Bulgaria went steeply up over the past years. They vary within wide margins from pharmacy to pharmacy. There is no efficient control over the prices and conditions in which medicines are being kept. The ownership restrictions and government control of prices provided for by the Bill were approved in principle by MPs of all parliamentary forces and by health officials, but met the controversial response of the public and the press. Wholesale of medicines will be an open business for everybody but only pharmacists will be allowed to run retail trade in medicines, said Mimi Vitkova. The Minister of Health Care is the only female minister in the incumbent cabinet. The Bill provides for a threeyear property transfer period for pharmacies run by non-pharmacists. State-run pharmacies will become municipal property. Assistant pharmacists will be allowed to run pharmacies selling only ready-to-use medicines in minor population centres, if there are no other pharmacies. The Bill introduces a ban on advertising medicines sold on prescription. Advertisement will be allowed only for patent medicines under a permit of the Institute on Medicines that is placed under the obligation to study in advance the side effects of the advertised product. The Bill proposes that several specialized commissions be set up with the Ministry of Health Care to register medicines, serums and vaccines, dental medicines and consumables, and medicines of herbal origin. While the licensing procedure is underway, a pricing committee with the Ministry will negotiate with the producer a base, rather that fixed, price for the product. The responsibility to control medicine prices and quality will rest with the Ministry of Health Care, national and regional control bodies. The Ministry of Health Care will insist that concessions be granted to medicine producers as a means to stabilize the domestic pharmaceutical industry. This also involves revision of the foreign trade regime and restoration of markets lost over the past years for political reasons, according to Mimi Vitkova. While five years ago this country exported 450 million US dollar-worth medicines, last year the exports amounted to a mere 70-80 million dollars, said the Minister of Health Care. She has met Minister of Foreign Economic Cooperation Kiril Tsochev to discuss with him ways of handling this situation.
Sofia, March 28 (BTA) - Dr Mimi Vitkova, Minister of Health in Bulgaria, told a news conference that establishment of a Bulgarian- French committee on control of malignant growths has been set up. The idea was implemented with the assistance of the French Ambassador to Bulgaria Marcel Tremeau and Mme Tremeau. Dr Vitkova says the establishment of the committee is a grand gesture to Bulgaria. French oncologists, headed by well-known French Professor Georges Mate, will visit Bulgaria monthly to provide consulting and will help give Bulgarian patients adequate treatment in France. The Bulgarian side will pay only for the consultations - at extremly low prices at that, Dr Vitkova informed. The news conference was also attended by three representatives of Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres, which is supplying medicines and consumables worth ECU 1 million donated by the EU. They have been distributed among health establishments of national importance in Sofia. No information has been received so far on an elevation of radiation increase beyond permissible levels in Bulgaria, Deputy Health Minister Radka Argirova said in connection with the news about possible radiation leak from the Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. She cited data of the National Centre for Radiology and Radiation Protection and the Nuclear Facilities Safety Department with the Committee for Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. Microbiological tests of 37 samples of drinking water in Sofia in the last week now depart from the Bulgarian State Standard. Such studies have been carried following the implementation of water rationing in Sofia last year. The inhabitants of the three neighbourhoods, where the water quality was not up to the standards are recommended to boil their drinking water. Compared to last week, this week's samples showed lower readings of colour, iron and manganese. Experts say that the registered sporadic cases of intestinal infections were not due to the water rationing.
Sofia, march 28 (BTA) - After almost four years of preparations and studies, the project for the improvement of Sofia's water supply and sewarage system, developed by the French company Saur International, is still awaiting decision for its implementation. The Sofia City Council gave its consent for the establishment of a joint venture with Saur International, which would manage and operate the water supply and sewerage system, at the end of last year, Jules Chuteau, Deputy General Manager of the French company, recalled at a news conference today. He said that the deadline for starting the project, delayed for three years by administrative procedures, was the end of April 1995. Prime quality water and reasonable prices, he said summarizing the objectives of the project. So far Saur International has spent about one million dollars on the project. Sofia's water supply system have been fully diagnosed; actually the report on its condition was ready already in the summer of 1992, when the French experts warned their Bulgarian colleagues that if urgent measures were not taken, there would be a sharp drop in the quantity and quality of water. There have been water rationing in Sofia since November last year. The new project was developed in close cooperation with Greater Sofia Council and the Water Supply and Sewerage Municipal Company, the news conference was told. Under the project, the municipal authorities will keep its monopoly of water prices, the respective water-supply infrastructure and investments. Besides, they will have full control over the activities of the joint venture Sofiiski Vodi Inc. Saur International will have 51 percent participating interest in the joint venture or 439 million leva; the participating interest of Greater Sofia Council is 49 percent or 474 million leva, the value of its movable property. The venture will not shed none of the 2,000 jobs at the Water Supply and Sewerage Co.; it will provide modern facilities and train personnel for the application of the new method of work.
Sofia, March 28 (BTA) - The mayors of Calafat, Romania, and Vidin, Bulgaria, which face each other across the Danube, have sent the two countries' prime ministers their observations on the site of a second bridge over the Bulgarian-Romanian sector of the river. Officials of the two municipal councils met to discuss the results of the studies conducted by the British consulting firm Sir Alexander Gibb on the construction of a second bridge over the Danube. The mayors of Vidin, Mladen Kamenov, and of Calafat, Mr Cozocaru, write that the siting of the bridge in the Vidin-Calafat area is consistent with the national interests of both countries, the local BTA correspondent reports. Experts of the Committee for Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, the Kozlodoui Nuclear Power Plant and an international consortium, began a working meeting at the N-plant. They will evaluate the safety of the 440 MW Units Three and Four, the power plant said in a press release. The European Commission is interested in expanding contacts with the Bulgarian Parliament, Ambassador Thomas O'Sullivan, Head of Delegation of the European Commission in Sofia, said today after conferring with National Assembly Chairman Blagovest Sendov. The opportunities for a visit by the head of the Bulgarian legislature to the European Commission headquarters were discussed at the meeting, the National Assembly said in a press release. President Zhelyu Zhelev today received the leaders of the Anticommunists for Democracy Union at their request. Members of the union are worried by the actions of the parliamentary majority: the amendments to the Land Act and the act repealing the socalled "Panev Act," which disqualified former members of the communist nomenklatura from holding senior academic positions. According to them, all democratic forces must now unite in order to defend the acquisitions and oppose the Socialist Party on the local elections, the President's Press Office said. Six members of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment with the Council of Europe are arriving to inspect the Pazardjik Prison, said its Governor Sasho Atanassov. Bulgaria acceded to the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment on September 1, 1994 and this is the first time that the human rights activists are arriving on an inspection here. Apart from the Pazardjik Prison, they are showing interest in the rest of the Bulgarian jails as well. "They are obviously checking us because of outdated information on torture of political prisoners under the totalitarian regime," Mr Atanassov presumes. The Committee will report its findings to the Council of Europe. After a five-hour meeting today, the Executive Board and the parliamentary group of the Bulgarian Business Block (BBB) issued a declaration noting that the BBB parliamentary group remains united. The meeting was held in connection with the intentions of some MPs of the 12-member group expressed last week to leave it over disagreement with the policy pursued by BBB leader and floor leader George Ganchev. Four members did not sign the declaration, but it will become clear tomorrow whether they will stay in the group. According to the National Assembly Rules of Procedure, a parliamentary group cannot be constituted unless it consists of at least ten MPs. BBB is departing from its right-of-centre position, the dissenters said at today's meeting. They claimed that Mr Ganchev was making decisions on his own without consulting the BBB MPs.