ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
New York, April 19 - Bulgaria fully supports the efforts of the international community for curbing and completely banning mass destruction weapons and wants an unconditional and indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. This was part of the statement Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Stanimir Alexandrov made last night at the UN conference of the States Parties to the Treaty in his capacity as head of the Bulgarian delegation. In his statement during the general discussions, the speaker voiced his hope that the Treaty will turn into a permanent law of international relations. The head of the Bulgarian delegation further spoke on the need for special measures in the sphere of nuclear safety. Surprise inspections of the International Atomic Power Agency could prevent the diverting of nuclear materials for military purposes. Bulgaria is in favour of stringent control of export and storage of nuclear materials as a means to prevent environmental pollution. The Bulgarian delegation in New York had meetings with the delegations in Romania, Hungary and Ukraine, Alexandrov told BTA. The sides discussed issues pertaining to the safety, economic infrastructure, the mechanisms of the UN Sanctions Committee and the need for adopting further measures to address the specific economic problems of the countries in the region. The problems will be placed atop the agenda of meetings with diplomats of the Balkan countries and US government officials, Alexandrov went on to say. The head of the Bulgarian delegation will attend a conference organized by the National Defense University with the US Defense Department, where US experts and diplomats of Central and Eastern Europe will discuss NATO's expansion.
Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski will be making a working visit to Romania on April 24, Kosta Andreev, Head of the Foreign Ministry's Southeastern Europe Department, told the press today. Subjects for discussion will include aspects of the forthcoming Bucharest meeting of heads of state and government on problems of Black Sea economic cooperation and regional cooperation, as well as issues raised at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Central European Initiative countries. Bilateral issues may also be discussed, Andreev said.
President Zhelyu Zhelev received the German media magnate of Hungarian origin, count Josef von Ferenczy. Ferenczy acquainted Zhelev with the project for an European satellite network covering 25 countries, Bulgaria included, and asked for assistance for the project's implementation. The media magnate, who arrived on a three-day visit to this country yesterday, is the major sponsor of the project. Zhelev praised the Alpha TV satellite network project and said that he would study the matter and see how to provide assistance for it, the author of the project, Ferencz Koehalmi, who also attended the meeting, told journalists after it. Ferenczy familiarized Zhelev with the basic ideas of the Europe-Dialogue Movement he sponsors. Uniting prominent people from all over Europe, the Movement works for the promotion of understanding, for easing tension and preventing conflicts in Europe.
Later today Josef von Ferenczy was received by Prime Minister Zhan Videnov. The sides discussed the role of the mass media in the process of European integration, the role of the Europe-Dialogue Movement and the Alpha TV project, whose director the guest is. Praising Ferenczy's noble activities, Videnov stressed that besides the relations with Western Europe, Bulgaria attaches great importance to its contacts in the field of information, economy and culture with the countries in central and Eastern Europe.
The World Bank mission led by Vice President Wilfried Thalwitz ended its working visit to Bulgaria today. The mission arrived on April 17 to to examine the implementation of the World Bank's projects in Bulgaria; Mrs Rachel Lomax, the new Director for Europe and Central Asia, familiarized herself with the country's problems, John Wilton, World Bank Resident Representative in Bulgaria told a news briefing today. The World Bank mission considered three major issues, negotiations were not on its agenda, Mr Wilton said. Privatization in Bulgaria, the reform of the banking system and its financial stability, and the financial discipline of state- run enterprises were discussed in the context of the World Bank's finance and economy structural adjustment loan (FESAL). It was pointed out that the implementation of the Bank's investment projects in Bulgaria was slow; the sides considered the possibility of speeding it up. According to Mr Wilton, the reason for the slow pace of the projects' implementation is the inertness of the Government and Parliament. The Bank's investment projects cover water supply, health care, education, agriculture and power engineering. Special attention was paid to electricity prices: the World Bank believes that they should be further marked up. (The latest increase of elctricity was on March 1, 1995 when the price for industrial users went up 28.4 percent and for household ones 47 percent.) After yesterday's meeting with the World Bank officials, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic relations Kiril Tsochev told journalists that they insisted to raise the price of electricity up 3.2 cents/kWh (now it is 1.95 cents/kWh). The Bulgarian side declined to do it for the time being. According to Mr Wilton, the World Bank representatives and the Bulgarian Governement share the same view on the issues discussed. The Bank's mission approve the intentions of the Bulgarian Government. However, Bulgaria can expect financial assisstance from the World Bank only if its Government takes specific action that would yield results. Drafting laws and declaring intentions is not enough to get aid from the World Bank, Mr Witlon said. The World Bank mission was received by President Zhelyu Zhelev and National Assembly Chairman Blagovest Sendov. It met the management of the National Bank of Bulgaria, Finance Minister Dimiter Kostov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations Kiril Tsochev and representatives of one of the major trade union amalgamations in Bulgaria, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria.
"The Republic of Bulgaria pursues a policy of openness, good will, good neighborliness and readiness for mutually beneficial cooperation not only in the military and political sphere but in all other spheres of its relations with the Balkan countries. We are convinced that in this way we will help establish modern international relations in the Balkans, and that our efforts in this respect will be given due recognition," Defence Minister Dimiter Pavlov said at the opening of a two-day scientific conference on "Bulgaria and the Euro-Atlantic Security Structures". The event is organized by the National Association for International Relations (NAIR) set up a year ago. Participating in the forum are Bulgarian politicians, public figures, military experts, political analysts and journalists. The opening was attended by National Assembly Chairman Blagovest Sendov, MPs, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of several state institutions. "When a war is raging to the West of Bulgaria, it is natural that national security, the new priorities of Bulgaria's foreign policy and international relations, get atop the public agenda," Minister Pavlov said. He believes that NATO's Partnership for Peace initiative will contribute still more to the security in Bulgaria, in the Balkans and across Europe. An address delivered on behalf of Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski, stressed the need for launching a wide discussion and reaching a national consensus on Bulgaria's security so that this country partake in laying the groundwork for the new architecture of all-European security in the 21st century. Nikolai Kamov, Chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee, stressed the importance Bulgaria's foreign partners attach to the unanimity of Bulgarian state institutions. The Foreign Policy Committee suggested that National Assembly Chairman Blagovest Sendov mediate to coordinate the work of the different institutions involved in this country's foreign policy. The participants in the conference repeatedly stressed Bulgaria's policy for integration into the European and Euro-Atlantic security structures, as well as into the European political, economic and cultural structures. This one of the cabinet's major foreign policy priorities, Prime Minister Videnov stressed at yesterday's news conference. The forum was most timely, coinciding with the closing of the NATO Week in Bulgaria organized by the Bulgarian Atlantic Club, said NAIR chairman Alexander Yankov. "It is very important that Bulgaria state clearly and firmly its desire for NATO membership," President Zhelev said in a lecture at the Atlantic Club two days ago.
The National Assembly ratified today the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations as well as the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorized Duplication of their Phonograms. Both accords were ratified at first and second reading.
The MPs adopted at second reading revisions and amendments to the Act Restoring Ownership in Nationalized Immovable Property, which regulates the relations between former owners of housing property, subject to restitution and its current users. The amendments were voted to by the majority - the Socialist Party and its coalition partners. The MPs of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) said that if President Zhelev endorses the amendments, they would refer the legislation to the Constitutional Court, since they believe the amendments contradict other acting legislation. About a month ago the Parliament extended by three years the moratorium over the restitution of housing property. According to a text in the adopted amendments, the moratorium will not apply to occupants of such housing property, who may be considered to have sufficient incomes and propery to be able to pay rent at market prices. Another text regulates that the rent rate for such housings will be adjusted to inflation. A text which provoked heated discussions was the one, regulating that persons who had purchased their housings unlawfully, misusing their office, will be returned the sum they have paid, adjusted to the current market prices. The UDF voiced strong objections against this text in a declaration, read on the Bulgarian National Television tonight.
The MPs of the parliamentary group of the Bulgarian Business Bloc (BBB) elected today Ivo Traikov floor leader of their parliamentary group since BBB leader George Ganchev was unseated as MP by the Constitutional Court a week ago. The Constitutional Court decided that Mr Ganchev had held American citizenship during the parliamentary elections.
The draft revenue side of the national budget was considered today by the MPs of the Parliamentary Budgetary and Finance Committee. Committee Chairman Georgi Nikolov commented for BTA that it is hardly possible to increase the revenue side of the budget. In his view the MPs should do their best to adopt before the Parliament's recess Article 1, concerning revenue, expenditure and deficit of the National Budget Bill, so that the state could effect payments. The MPs intend to pass the Budget Bill before the 100 days of the Government's office have expired.
The National Assembly approved the report of the interim commission on the problems of the water supply in Sofia, which has been under water rationing since November, 1994, and the construction of the Djerman- Skakavitsa intake system. According to the report, the reasons for the water crisis in Sofia are complicated and mainly arising from subjective factors. The committee recommended that the National Waters Board, the Ministry of Health, the Energy Committee and other departments work out a long-term programme for Sofia's water supply by September, 1995.
Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski will attend the meeting of the Council for Association with the Central European Initiative in Krakow, Kossyo Kitipov, Head of the Foreign Ministry's Europe and North America Department, told journalists today. The participants are expected to consider issues of regional and all-European cooperation and structural projects. In March 1994 Bulgaria was granted the status of a country associated with the Central European Initiative. In Krakow Minister Pirinski will have bilateral meetings with the leaders of the delegations of Ukraine, Belarus and Slovenia. A meeting with representatives of Poland which hosts the forum.
"The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry's only adequate response to this provocative thesis is not to react officially to it," Vladimir Sotirov, Head of the Foreign Ministry's International Organizations department, told journalists invited to comment on the Bulgarian reaction to a note by the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Geneva claiming that there was a Serbian minority in Bulgaria. "The document is a reaction to the statement of Bulgaria's permanent representative in the Human Rights Committee concenring the condition of the Bulgarian minority in Serbia, made at the Committee's 51st session," Mr Sotirov specified. He pointed out that in the given context of discussion, the Bulgarian major problem is the problems of the rights of Bulgarians in Serbia.
"The Amendments to the Agricultural Land Tenure Act will help stop the ruin of Bulgaria's agriculture," the parliamentary group of the Bulgarian Socialist Party stated in a special declaration. According to the Socialists, the Land Act Amendments guarantee the restitution of land to all owners and the allocation of land to small and landless farmers. The opposition Union of Democratic Forces and the Popular Union took a stand against the Land Act Amendments, describing them as unconstitutional. They protested against their adoption at a meeting with President Zhelyu Zhelev. The extraparliamentary coalition Civil Alliance for the Republic joined their protest; the coalition believes that President Zhelev should impose a suspensory veto on the Land Act Amendments.
President Zhelev unveiled a monument to Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov in Sofia. The bronze bust of the poet, made by Prof. Grigor Aforyan and unveiled in 1935, was stolen several months ago. The new sculpture, which is its copy, was paid for by Kevork Kevorkyan, a Bulgarian journalist and businessman and Co-chairman of the 80 Years since the Genocide against Armenians National Committee. Armenian refugees found shelter in Bulgaria after the bloodshed in 1894-95 and their fate inspired Yavorov to write his poem "Armenian". "After Yavorov's poem it is impossible for a Bulgarian to stand against an Armenian," President Zhelev said today.
US Ambassador in Sofia William Montgomery handed Minister of the Environment Georgi Georgiev a project for Bulgaria's national strategy for the conservation of biological diversity. The project, financed by the European office of the US Agency for International Development, was developed as technical aid designed for the Bulgarian Ministry of the Environment. It is coordinated with the US programme for the conservation of biological diversity. Since 1990 Bulgaria has received over 60 million dollars from the United States for the implementation of different environmental protection programmes, the Ambassador said.
Kiril Tsochev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation, received Yevgeni Reshetnikov, Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation, BTA was told by the Government press office.
Deputy Prime Minister Svetoslav Shivarov received separately the representatives of the International Organization on Migration with the UN, Joachim Ritter, and of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refuges in Bulgaria, Ivetta Pass. The guests expressed the desire of their organizations desire to cooperate with Bulgaria. The sides considered the possibility of developing a joint programme for resolving the problem of illegal aliens in Bulgaria.
Deputy Prime Minister Shivarov received Turkey's Ambassador to Bulgaria Yilcin oral. The sides discussed some aspects of the Bulgarian agrarian reform and some problems of the Muslim denomination.
A total of 272 deals have been concluded since the launch of privatization two years ago, experts of the Privatization Agency told journalists. Of them 52 were signed by the Privatization Agency, 30 by the Industry Ministry, 70 by the Trade Ministry, 65 by the Agriculture Ministry, 13 by the Transport Ministry, 29 by the Ministry of Construction, and only 2 by the Ministry of Culture. A total of 1,080 privatization procedures opened in the observable period; of them 32 were terminated. Another 1,200 - 1,300 should be put up for denationalization to carry out the cabinet's privatization programme for 1995, said Privatization Agency chief Vesselin Blagoev. Members of the parliamentary Economic Committee discussed with the Privatization Agency Supervisory Board and executive chiefs the 1995 privatization programme of the Prime Minister Videnov's cabinet. The programme was approved by the Subcommittee on Privatization with the Economic Committee and in May it will enter the National Assembly plenary chamber. According to Nikola Koichev MP of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), 20% of the state-owned enterprises now are in a process of recovery while another 20% face virtual bankruptcy. Koichev believes privatization should target the remaining 50% - 60% of the state-owned companies. The Economic Committee will convene again in late May to finalize the draft amendments to the Privatization Act before submitting them at the plenary chamber. The Committee have to date seen seven versions for draft amendments to the Privatization Act, said Alexander Bozhkov, MP of the Union of Democratic Forces and former Privatization Agency chief. The Privatization Agency concluded three privatization deals over the past two months, after the new Socialist cabinet replaced the Agency's chief and some members of its Supervisory Board. According to Dimiter Stefanov who chairs the Agency's Supervisory Board, the Agency by the end of April will sign 20 privatization deals, including the posh Sofia, Sheraton and Rodina hotels in Sofia. The Agency's major deal was the sale of an unfinished factory for coffee roasting and packing. The unit's fixed assets - administrative premises, workshops for coffee roasting and packing, warehouses, water supply and other equipment - were sold for a total of US$ 2 million. Half of the price will be paid in cash and the other half in foreign debt bonds. The Privatization Act passed in April 1992 and October this year saw the setting up of the Privatization Agency as a body operating with the Council of Ministers. The first privatization deal was signed in May 1993. Unfortunately, in 1994 Bulgaria came last among the countries in terms of denationalized enterprises with a mere of 35 major privatization deals. Apart from changes in the management of the Privatization Agency, the cabinet plans to revise the privatization scheme by introducing a mixed system with shares of the enterprise sold with the mechanisms of cash privatization, and the rest privatized against vouchers. According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev, the first round of privatization is due to start this autumn.