News from Bulgaria / Dec. 4, 95

From: bulgaria@access1.digex.net (Embassy of Bulgaria)

Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory

EMBASSY OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.

BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY

BULLETIN OF NEWS FROM BULGARIA

CONTENTS

[01] PARLIAMENT SUPPORTS BULGARIA'S OFFICIAL APPLICATION

Sofia, December 1 (Kiril Vulchev of BTA) - Parliament today voted to approve Bulgaria's official application for membership in the European Union and recommended that the Government take the necessary steps to this end. On Thursday Videnov's Socialist Cabinet decided to file such an application at the EU Madrid summit on December 15, 1995. The preamble to today's parliamentary resolution, passed with only one vote against, confirmed Bulgaria's striving to integrate into European and Euroatlantic structures and the priority it attaches to EU membership. The resolution binds the parliamentary committees to work for the approximation of Bulgarian legislation to the European one. Today's sitting of Parliament was broadcast live by the state television and radio and was attended by President Zhelyu Zhelev, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov, cabinet ministers and representatives of the diplomatic corps. Before the debates on the decision started Prime Minister Videnov made a chronological review of Bulgaria's steps to membership in the European Union and stressed that the Government's decision to apply for full membership is a logical continuation of the overall Bulgarian policy towards integration into European structures. Socialist Nikolai Kamov, chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, observed that there was complete consensus in the committee in the process of drafting the resolution in support of filing an official application for full EU membership. For the first time Bulgaria may realize its national ideal - European integration will give Bulgarian nationals access to the lands for which their forefathers died, Assen Agov MP of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), said. Agov is deputy chairman of the parliamentary foreign policy committee. According to him, just like France and Germany closed an issue dividing them - Alsace-Lorraine, by its European integration Bulgaria may close the issue of its national ideal - the three geographical regions of Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. UDF MP Valentin Vassilev stressed that the coalition views application for EU and NATO membership as two inseparable processes. Other opposition MPs also insisted on a categorical parliamentary declaration in support of Bulgaria's full membership in NATO. Socialist MP Elena Poptodorova observed however, that today's parliamentary resolution is a major step in this country's policy for affiliation to European and Euroatlantic structures. Ibrahim Tatarli of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF, of the ethnic Turks) said that the MRF categorically supports the decision as Bulgaria's membership in the EU would guarantee the irreversibility of the democratic processes in this country.

[02] PRESIDENT ZHELEV TO VISIT ITALY

Sofia, December 2 (BTA) - The official visit of Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev to Italy, paid at the invitation of Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, begins on Monday. President Zhelev returns the visit of Italy's President who was in Bulgaria in July 1993. President Zhelev will meet President Scalfaro, Prime Minister Alberto Dini and Italian parliamentarians. "President Zhelev is going to use the visit to defend the Bulgarian cause of integration into the European structures," the presidential foreign political adviser, Kamen Velichkov, told journalists. The Bulgarian head of state will discuss the future East-West transport corridor, whose terminal will be Italy, at his talks with Mr Scalfaro. President Zhelev will be accompanied by four MPs representing different parliamentary groups. Yesterday the Government announced that Deputy Prime Minister Svetoslav Shivarov would not join the official delegation because he is leaving for a francophone meeting in Benin. The executive branch will be represented by Kossyo Ketipov, Head of Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Bulgaria concluded a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Italy ratified by the Bulgarian Parliament in April 1993. The Treaty was signed in January 1992 during the visit of the then minister of foreign affairs, Stoyan Ganev. At that time a Bulgarian-Italian agreement on the extradition of criminal suspects was also signed. Bulgaria and Italy concluded an agreement on legal assistance in civil and criminal matters too. In the last decades Italy has become the second largest West European importer of Bulgarian goods after Germany. The two countries have a long-term agreement on the development of economic, industrial, scientific and technological cooperation. Another agreement, on the avoidance of double taxation, is effective as from June 1991. Bulgaria and Italy established diplomatic relations in 1879, breaking them twice (in 1915-1920 and in 1944-1945). In 1964 their diplomatic missions were raised to the level of embassies. On December 7 President Zhelyu Zhelev will be received by Pope John Paul II. "This will be the first direct contact between the Head of the Catholic Church and the Bulgarian President, and they have been carrying on correspondence for a long time," Mr Velichkov said. Mr Zhelev is going to extend Pope John Paul II an official invitation to visit Bulgaria.

[03] THE BULGARIAN PRESIDENT TO INVITE POPE JOHN PAUL II

Sofia, December 1 (BTA) - "During my forthcoming visit to Italy I am going to meet with Pope John Paul II," President Zhelyu Zhelev said at his meeting with students from the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. He intends to extend an official invitation to the Pope to visit Bulgaria. "However, I doubt that the visit will take place, due to the attitude of the Bulgarian church, which remains silent on the issue," the Bulgarian Head of State said. President Zhelev will have a tete-a-tete meeting with Pope John Paul II. He will give him as presents Bulgarian icons, his books published in Bulgarian and the Bulgarian edition of a book of Mother Teresa.

[04] BULGARIAN-IRANIAN TALKS ON ECONOMIC COOPERATION

Sofia, December 3 (BTA) - The 10th session of the Bulgarian- Iranian Intergovernmental Commission on economic, scientific and technological cooperation, which opened in Teheran yesterday, is discussing the possibilities for the development of economic relations between the two countries, the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation says in a fax to BTA. The negotiations on a route for the transportation of cargoes from Varna and Bourgas via Poti and Batumi to the Iranian border are going on. Talks are being held on expanding bilateral trade and on the launching of joint productions. The Iranian side is investigating the conditions for the participation of Bulgarian companies in extending the railway system in Iran, in the repair and building of ships, the design and implementation of high-voltage projects and the construction of power substations. Yesterday and today the head of the Bulgarian delegation, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Kiril Tsochev, and other members of the delegation had meetings with Iranian statesmen and businessmen. They conferred with President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani of Iran, with First Vice President Hassan Ebrahim Habibi, with the ministers of trade and the oil industry and with other government officials. At a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, the sides discussed the possibility of Bulgaria's participation in projects for the post-war rebuilding of Bosnia financed by Iran within the framework of the Islamic Conference Organization.

[05] BULGARIA, INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Sofia, December 1 (BTA) - Today Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and Construction Doncho Konakchiev received World Bank Resident Representative in Bulgaria Alberto Musalem and experts of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the President's Press Office told BTA. Alberto Musalem handed Minister Konakchiev a draft guarantee scheme, drafted by the World Bank, for mobilization of resources for infrastructure development. The participants in the meeting discussed the inclusion of Bulgarian private and state-owned companies in the post-war reconstruction of former Yugoslavia. Konakchiev noted that Bulgaria is invited to attend the Brussels, London and Paris peace conferences. "Bulgaria shows keen interest towards the international auctions, which are going to determine the participants in the construction activities on the basis of competition," he said. The cooperation among WB, EBRD and the Bulgarian Telecommunication Company figured on the agenda of the talks. Minister Konakchiev familiarized the representatives of the two financial institutions with the Government's plans to reconstruct telecommunications.

[06] FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI TO ATTEND PARIS CONFERENCE

Sofia, December 1 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Georgi Pirinski, will attend the conference in Paris at which the peace accords on Bosnia are expected to be signed, the Foreign Ministry Spokesman said. Besides attending the signing ceremony, Minister Pirinski will take part in the talks of foreign ministers on stability and goodneighbourliness in Southeastern Europe, expected to open a day earlier. Bulgaria has been invited to participate in the London conference to be held before the Paris one. It will be represented by Foreign Minister Georgi Pirisnki again.

[07] BULGARIA TO HOST MEETING OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Sofia, December 2 (BTA) - "In 1997 Bulgaria will host the meeting of communications ministers of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe," Lyubomir Kolarov, Chairman of the Posts and Telecommunications Committee, said at his return from Nicosia where he attended a conference of the ministers in charge of posts and communications in Central and Eastern Europe. "The economic development of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe is similar and the establishment of a regional union will help improve communications among them," Mr Kolarov said. "The idea to set up a union was backed by my counterparts and I hope that working together, we will be able to resolve the problems of posts and telecommunications," he added. Mr Kolarov said that the Bulgarian idea to build the centre for the training of posts managers at the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Bourgas was supported by the participants in the conference.

[08] SWISS FOREIGN MINISTER COTTI IN SOFIA

Sofia, December 1 (Iva Toncheva of BTA) - Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti paid an official working visit to Bulgaria today. He conferred with his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Pirinski and met President Zhelyu Zhelev and Prime Minister Zhan Videnov. Before leaving Bulgaria, Flavio Cotti said his visit was brief but essential.

The talks of the Swiss Foreign Minister focused on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Sofia was the last capital city the chief of the Swiss diplomacy visited before Switzerland takes over the OSCE Presidency next week.

"Being a small and neutral country, Switzerland has always avoiding taking serious foreign policy responsibilities and if we take over the OSCE presidency, it is to demonstrate Switzerland's will to open up its foreign policy," said Flavio Cotti. He said Switzerland will try to show it attaches great importance to the development of Europe and democracy, to human rights and minority rights. The Swiss Foreign Minister further voiced his country's readiness to face the challenges connected with conflicts such as Nagorno Karabakh and Chechnya, in which the OSCE is already too much involved.

The talks of the Swiss Foreign Minister also considered the situation in former Yugoslavia and the role of the OSCE for the strict implementation of the agreements reached so far. The European security model was also discussed. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski said it was most natural for Flavio Cotti to be interested in Bulgaria's stand on the post-conflict situation in former Yugoslavia and the whole region. The sides discussed three groups of matters: the normalization of political and social life; the reduction of and control over armament within the framework of multilateral agreements; and the economic reconstruction of areas hit by the war and the region in general.

Emphasis was placed on Bulgaria's views about the economic dimensions of the OSCE activity. Speaking at a joint news conference at the end of Cotti's visit, Pirinski said the sides have agreed that the OSCE can provide political impetus for the launch of regional projects for economic development.

Bulgarian-Swiss ties were also on the Sofia agenda of the Swiss Foreign Minister. "We reviewed a number of bilateral issues to find that our relations are unclouded and that it would be useful to further the cooperation both in the technical and financial spheres," Flavio Cotti said. The sides discussed specific projects in finances, agriculture, the health care services and regional development, under which Swiss funds are made available for Bulgaria. They were unanimous that preconditions exist for expansion of the existing forms of cooperation and their activation next year in connection with the launch of privatization and the structural adjustment of the banking sector in Bulgaria.

Foreign Minister Pirinski accepted an invitation by his Swiss counterpart to visit Switzerland next year.

[09] BULGARIA, FRANCE SIGN DOCUMENTS ON COOPERATION

Sofia, December 1 (BTA) - Bulgaria and France today signed an intergovernmental programme on cooperation in culture, education, science and technology in 1995-98. The programme seeks to expand the traditionally good bilateral cooperation in the above fields and outline more specific targets for cooperation. Officials of the two countries' Ministries of Education today also signed a three-year pilot programme in education. It envisages that graduates of the French-language high schools of Sofia, Plovdiv (Southern Bulgaria) and Varna (on the Black Sea) receive diplomas both in Bulgarian and in French that will be valid in the two countries.

[10] PARLIAMENT AMENDS PRIVATIZATION ACT

Sofia, December 1 (BTA) - Parliament today passed at second reading amendments to the Transformation and Privatization of State- Owned and Municipal Enterprises Act. The amended law will become effective when it is published in The Official Gazette after which Parliament will take up the privatization programme.

The amendments affect both cash and voucher privatization. The bill of amendments was quickly approved by the parliamentary economic committee and introduced at Parliament for second reading debates at the demand of the government and Prime Minister Zhan Videnov.

Under the amended law, the voucher books that will be used in mass privatization will be issued against a 500 leva fee to be contributed to an extra-budgetary account of the Centre for Mass Privatization. Pensioners, conscripts and students will pay 100 leva for a voucher book. 25,000 leva will be entered in the voucher books for each round of privatization. The law envisages two privatization rounds and a third is likely.

Members of the public will bid in privatization directly or through privatization funds to be set up as joint-stock companies.

Following heated debates, Parliament decided that only Bulgarian citizens with permanent residence in this country be allowed to participate in mass privatization. The opposition Union of Democratic Forces protested vehemently against this provision as it bars from mass privatization some 250,000 Bulgarians who have immigrated to Turkey and another 300,000 in other parts of the world.

The amended law introduces penalties for officials of companies put up for privatization, who refuse bidders relevant information. Shares of companies bought with vouchers will be transferred to the new owners within six months after the end of the last centralized privatization round.

The MPs decided that the Supervisory Board of the Privatization Agency (in charge of cash privatization) keeps its 11 members. The parliamentary economic committee insisted that it be reduced to seven members.

The Socialists-led parliamentary majority cut the preferences that lease-holders and tenants enjoyed under the previous law. They had the right to purchase the enterprises hired by them, or part of them, without tender. The new law passes these preferences onto the companies' staff. There are separate texts in the law that introduce a five-year ban for the sale of enterprises ot parts of enterprises their staff have acquired in privatization.

Parliament further rejected a proposal envisaging that owners of property that has been nationalized, be compensated with privatization vouchers. According to the chief of the Centre for Mass Privatization, Kalin Mitrev, it does not offer a solution to the problem as it is impossible to estimate exactly the price of one investment voucher. The compensations to former owners will be on Parliament's agenda after the first round of mass privatization.

The passage of the law is a "green light" for mass privatization, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev who was in the parliamentary plenary chamber today, said after all texts of the law were put to the vote.

[11] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION LEFT FOR PARIS

Sofia, December 3 (BTA) - A permanent delegation of the National Assembly left for Paris today to attend the autumn session of the Western European Union Assembly. "The session is going to be a particularly interesting one because it will discuss for the first time the relationships within the Western European structures," head of delegation Emil Filipov told BTA at the airport of Sofia. "At the moment there is a heated dispute whether the Assembly should remain independent or it should be integrated into the European Union," he added. "There are views that the Assembly should perform the EU defensive functions through the WEU," Mr Filipov said. "If consultations are held on individual issues concerning the former Yugoslavia, the Bulgarian delegation is prepared to take part in them," he stated. Bulgarian parliamentarians will attend a meeting of the WEU Assembly for the sixth time. This is the second structure after the EU in which Bulgaria was granted the status of associate partner.

[12] NEW INVESTMENT POLICY IN SOCIAL SERVICES FIELD

Sofia, December 1 (BTA) - Representatives of the National Centre for Social Services (NCSS) unveiled a new program on investment policy in the filed of social services at a news conference today. Sixty thousand Bulgarians are provided with social help. People with a monthly income below 2,400 leva receive social welfare payments. Some six to seven percent of the Bulgarian people are socially disadvantaged. There are more than 350 centres for domiciliary and social services in Bulgaria. However, they have ownership problems and their facilities are in poor condition. The new program envisages a reform in the social services sphere. Fifteen new social services will be introduced. At the same time the specialized fund for assistance to the social disadvantaged when electricity and solid fuel prices are increased has extended only 23 million leva to households in financial need, Teodora Noncheva, NCSS Deputy Head said. The fund has some 580 million leva, of which 140 million have been transferred to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs so far.

[13] BUSINESS PRESS

Sofia, December 1 (BTA) - The country will run out of sunflower seeds probably in February, 1995, head of the Chamber of Agriculture Todor Panov is quoted as saying by "24 Chassa". According to Panov, the inadequate foreign trade requirements allow uncontrolled exports of sunflower seeds. Panov calls for the establishment of a state monopoly over grain, tobacco, spirits and wine.

The press reports on yesterday's resignation of the Director of Post Bank Vladimir Vladimirov. According to "24 Chassa", the bank's share holders wanted Vladimorov replaced over his refusal to grant 1,000 million leva in loans to the "Orion" economic group. The daily recalls that bank's major share are the Bulgarian Posts, the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, the State Insurance Institute and the State Savings Bank who hold 20 per cent interest each.

Interviewed for "Douma" the Executive Director of the Bulgarian- Russian company "Triada" Georgi Stefanov presents the company's intentions. According to Stefanov, "Triada" was set up in early 1995. The company was founded by Bulgarian and Russian companies on state- owned capital as well as by the Bulgarian-Russian Investment Bank, at the initiative of the Power Engineering Committee and the National Electrical Company. According to Georgi Stefanov, the company's objectives are mainly in the field of energy. It will also seek to settle certain "difficult issues", some of them being connected with the nuclear power engineering.

[14] BUSINESS BRIEFS

Sofia, December 3 (BTA) - The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Yambol (Southern Bulgaria), uniting over 300 companies operating in the area, received a request for partnership with companies in the former Yugoslavia, the BTA local correspondent said citing the President of the Chamber, Stoicho Stoichev. They are interested in conducting cooperation in construction and the food processing industry.

The Chimco chemical enterprise in Vratsa (Northwestern Bulgaria) began the implementation of a special programme to increase exports to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, BTA was told by its local correspondent. The contacts with major consumers of carbon sulphide are being re-established; monthly exports are expected to exceed one thousand tonnes, which is 50 percent of the capacity of the Chimco facilities. The company will resume the supply of ammonia solution, carbamide and catalysts to its customers too.

The Vratsa-based company Veslets '91 received DM 2.5 million from the State Fund for Reconstruction and Development. The funds will go into the expansion of cylinder sleeves production, one of the most promising at the pig iron plant. According to experts, the lifting of sanctions against Yugoslavia will open an opportunity to extend the markets of pig iron casting. At present 80 percent of the plant's production is designed for export.

"Isogomaterm", a Bulgarian insulation material produced by Ares Gomaplast in Yambol received German, Russian and Japanese certificates of quality. The material is flexible synthetic rubber which is fireproof, does not melt and is resistant to attacks by microorganisms, rodents, acids, oils and salts, the producers say.

The German conglomerate BASF Aktiengesellschaft plans to buy a large Bulgarian chemical plant and launch the production of vitamins, BASF Bulgaria Manager Reinhold Janson said. He did not specify which the plant is but stressed Bulgaria's geographical location would help market the products in Greece, Turkey and other countries in the rregion. BASF has invested two million US dollars in Bulgaria in 1995. The company has beeng working with Bulgaria for 27 years and last year opened an office in it.

One hundred sixty companies took part in the European Union forum mottoed Europartnership '95 in Lisbon. They operate in mechanical engineering, the food and the chemical industry. According to Inforcenter which made the arrangements for the Bulgarian participation in the forum, there was keen interest in their products. Part of the Bulgarian companies closed profitable deals.

Arda Instrument, Bulgaria's sole producer of pressure gauges based in Kurdjali (Southeastern Bulgaria), is regaining positions on the Russian market. The enterprise concluded contracts with three Russian companies for the export of its products in 1996. The Russian companies will deliver measurements instrument for power engineering and the chemical industry in return.

Orgtehnika in Silistra (Northeastern Bulgaria) and producers of electronics from Tbilisi signed a protocol on the joint production of electronic cash registers. It was signed during the visit of a Bulgarian business delegation to Georgia.