The much expected immigration summit of several EU countries and Canada in Paris has made no mention of the recent campaign of the French government to crack down on Roma immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania.
The Roma issue, including the deportation of Roma squatters to their home countries, which caused much uproar around Europe and brought much international criticism for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was not mentioned once during the discussions of Monday's immigration summit in Paris, and was not included in the concluding document of the meeting, reported the correspondent of the Bulgarian channel bTV.
At a news conference after the summit, however, French Immigration Minister Eric Besson practically denied the existence of a "Roma deportation".
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The shareholders and project company of Nabucco have singed a mandate letter with three international financial institutions for the appraisal of the future natural gas transit pipeline, which has been hailed as a key step towards its successful construction
The signing of the mandate letter of the shareholders and Nabucco Gas Pipeline International with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and IFC - a member of the World Bank Group, marks the start of the appraisal process of the Nabucco project, a required step towards a potential financing package of up to EUR 4 B, the project company says in a statement Monday.
The potential financing package will consist of up to EUR 2 B from the EIB, up to EUR 1....,
Manchester United's Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov remained second in the poll for the best player of his team in August 2010.
According to the official Manchester United website poll, Manchester United's player of the month for August is Paul Scholes with 62%, or some 5000 votes, out of over 8000 votes cast.
Berbatov is second with 35% of the votes; Luis Nani is third with 3%, and Nemanja Vidic comes in 4th with 1....,
The administration of the western Bulgarian city of Pernik has renewed its initiative for a connection to subway of the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
On Monday, the Deputy District Governor of Pernik, Radoslav Yordanov, announced that the local authorities have renewed their talks with the central government for the building of a new train station that will provide a connection between the Pernik-Sofia rail line and the Sofia subway.
Monday's talks were held with Deputy Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski; several more meetings are expected to take place between the various authorities, including representatives of National Company "Railway Infrastructure", reported BTA.
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The Bulgarian government is going to receive a dividend of BGN 41 M from the Czech-owned power utility CEZ Bulgaria.
This has become clear Monday after a meeting of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov with Jan Vavera, regional manager of CEZ for Bulgaria, which was also attended by Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, Traicho Traikov, and Deputy Environment Minister Evdokiya Maneva as well as the head of Bulgaria's State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR), Angel Semerdzhiev.
Vavera told the PM there will be upcoming early general meetings of the boards of CEZ subsidiaries GEZ Razpredelenie and CEZ Electro, during which the company will approve the payment of a dividend of BGN 41 M to the state for the period 2006-2009.
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Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has issued a special statement congratulating Bulgarians on the occasion of 125 years since September 6, 1885,В the day of the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and "Eastern Roumelia".
"I happy to congratulate you with the Day of Unification, one of the most significant victories in the new Bulgarian history; a victory that happened because the political elite, despite its ideological differences, and the society, despite its social stratification, came together looking in the same direction, and were unified in their endeavor to unite all Bulgarians in one nation-state," says Borisov's statement.
"Sometimes it is harder, sometimes it is easier – but unity is always possible....,
There is a serious threat that the Kardzhali District could be separated from Bulgaria, declared Monday the leader of the nationalist party Ataka, Volen Siderov.
During a visit to Kardzhali on Bulgaria's Unification Day, Siderov revived his claims from before the 2005 elections that foreign powers (apparently Turkey) and/or separatist forces might seek to break off the Kardzhali province, which has a Turkish minority, from the rest of the country.
In his words, despite the fact that the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) is no longer part of the government (as it was in 2001-2009), it still has a virtual monopoly of power in the Kardzhali District.
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The bishop of Bulgaria's Plovdiv, Nikolay, has presented orders for "defending" Christian values to a controversial mayor and a notorious prosecutor, who were recently involved with anti-gay policies.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church bishop Nikolay, who is known for his hardline stance on religion issues, has given the highest order of the Plovdiv Bishopric, "Holy Apostle Hermas", to the Mayor of the city of Pazarzhik Todor Popov and the Pazardzhik Prosecutor Stefan Yanev.
He praised them for their contribution to "standing up for Christian values, defending Orthodox Christian morality and spirituality, the sanctity of marriage, family, and statehood....,
John Toshack is willing to quit as Wales manager before the team next month's game against Bulgaria, BBC Sport reported.
The 61-year-old is thought to feel he has taken the side as far as he can after the 1-0 loss in Montenegro to open the 2012 Euro qualifying campaign.
Toshack, whose second period in charge of Wales began when he succeeded Mark Hughes in November 2004, has won 21 and lost 24 of his 53 games since then.
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Greek investment fund Bluehouse Capital is to acquire four properties of Sofia-based ERG Capital 1 and ERG Capital 2 REITs in a EUR 27 M deal, according to media reports.
Bluehouse Capital has already signedВ preliminaryВ contracts with the two companies, majority-owned by the Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund (BAEF), Dnevnik daily reported, citing insiders to the negotiations.
The Bulgarian subsidiary of real estate consultants Colliers International has been picked as consultant on the deal.
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Bulgaria's national revenue agency is still investigating the queen of pop Lili Ivanova for possible tax evasion as part of measures to curb rampant fraud and boost budget revenues, according to reports.
Bulgarian music stars Lili Ivanova and Vasil Naydenov were among the first 16 singers against whom the National Revenue Agency (NRA) launched checks for tax evasion about a year ago as many of them are believed to declare only a fraction of their true earnings.
Last week the revenue agency said two of the biggest pop and popfolk stars owed between BGN 700,000 and BGN 1 M in unpaid taxes and interest payments.
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Rental levels in Bulgaria have tracked sideways in mid-2010 as the impact of softness in demand had been offset by the effect of restricted new supply, according to global research outfit Business Monitor International (BMI).
Surprisingly, BMI country sources expect modest rises in rents in Sofia and Varna and forecast that rental yields will continue to track sideways over the next year or so, as movements in rents are matched by changes in capital values.
At the beginning of 2010 rents had fallen by around one-third in all three sub-sectors and in all three cities – Sofia, Burgas and Varna, which the research outfit monitors
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The Spanish government has dismissed as "insufficient" a ceasefire by Eta, saying the Basque separatist group must renounce violence forever.
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the group was weaker than ever and his government would continue to pursue its members.
At the weekend Eta said it would no longer carry out "armed actions".
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Young Bulgarian IT experts, living abroad, have sent via e-mail racket demands and threats to a representative of Abu Dhabi company EABG, who arrived in Sofia Saturday to clear an international scandal about the construction of a Bulgarian Formula 1 track, officials announced.
"Most probably they did it for fun, because these are young and well educated people, Formula 1 fans. We hope to manage to contact them with the cooperation of our partners abroad at the beginning of the week," Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said.
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France's controversial expulsion of hundreds of ethnic Romas from its territory is set to be debated by the European Parliament during its first plenary session after the summer recess.
Parliament will discuss with the Commission whether the deportation of hundreds of Roma people this summer from France to Romania and Bulgaria breached EU provisions on freedom of movement and fundamental rights.
The debate will give the EU's justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, the opportunity to make her first public statement since ordering an investigation on whether France's measures respect EU law.
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Bulgaria will be advertised as a year-round tourist destination on Euronews, Eurosport, National Geographic Channel and Discovery Channel as of September 6.
The funding for the advertising campaign amounts to BGN 7,5 M and will be provided through a project under the EU operational program "Regional Development".
In three short videos Bulgaria will be presented as both summer and winter tourist destination....,
Skepticism over the outcome of the immigration summit in Paris, which opens on Monday, is reigning in Bulgaria, which has welcomed so far twenty six Roma deported from France, but was not invited to the forum.
Bulgaria's government has been keeping a low profile over France's Roma crackdown, apparently fearing that tension with Paris might put at risk its Schengen accession.
The country hopes to join the EU's border-free zone by the end of 2011 as scheduled and the official line is that recent expulsions of mostly Romanian and Bulgarian Roma from France is irrelevant to that process.
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Balkans.com Business News
In August, France intensified criticism of Romania and Bulgaria for their lack of progress in the process of the integration of the Roma minority....,
Paris hosts on Monday an 'immigration' summit after inviting a handful of member states amid strong controversy stirred by its expulsion of scores of Roma back to Romania and Bulgaria.
Eric Besson, the French immigration minister, has invited interior ministers from Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Greece. The Canadians have also been invited, while the Belgian EU presidency was added to the list as an afterthought.
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Bulgaria is celebrating on Monday the 125th anniversary since the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia.
Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov together with Parliamentary Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva are to attend the official ceremony held at the city of Plovdiv this evening.
After the medieval Bulgarian empire was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1396 AD, Bulgaria was formally restored as a nation-state on March 3, 1878, after the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78.
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Moldova's referendum on whether to change its constitution, which took place on Sunday, has failed because of low turnout largely caused by a boycott of the Communist Party.
The referendum was supposed to lead to a decision on whether to change the constitution in order to have the Moldovan people elect directly their president, and thus end the country's 1.5-year political stalemate.
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EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn has expressed concern and bewilderment at the failure of Bulgaria and Greece to take advantage of the European Territorial Cooperation Program.
Hahn has replied in written to an inquiry by Bulgarian Socialist MEP Ivaylo Kalfin released Sunday by the press service of the delegation of the Bulgarian Socialists to the European Parliament.
"The Commission is concerned by the long delay in the assessment of the projects and the selection process, which is supposed to last for about 3 months....,
Bulgaria's Boyko Borisov opened a much-advertised station for purification of waste waters near the central town of Sopot.
BGN 18 M were invested in the new facility, with BGN 4 M of these coming from the state budget, and the rest from EU Operational Program "Environment".
Borisov declared that the purified water had better drinking qualities than the tap water in the entire region....,
Five people have perished in a horrific car crash on the Hemus Highway near Bulgaria's Varna.
The accident happened Sunday afternoon after two cars driving in opposite directions made attempts to overtake those in front of them.
The road section in question has seen the highest number of car crashes causing death....,
Bulgaria's Defense Minister Anyu Angelov is heading to meet with his Polish counterpart for talks, which likely have to do with the US missile shield in Europe.
According to the official statement of the Bulgarian Defense Ministry, Gen. Angelov is flying off to Poland on Sunday for a two-day visit during which he will meet with his Polish counterpart Bogdan Klich in order "to discuss NATO's new strategic concept, the transformation of the Alliance, and the deepening of the bilateral cooperation in the field of defense....,
Bulgaria's national football team has come up with a statement appealing to Bulgarian fans for support after the catastrophic 4:0 loss from England at the start of the Euro 2012 qualifications.
In the statement published by the Bulgarian Football Union, the players and coaches of the Bulgarian national football team declare that they "commiserate" with the Bulgarian people after Friday's loss at Wembley in London.
"We are suffering no less that you are," the football players have told the Bulgarian fans.
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The representative of Abu Dhabi company EABG, who arrived in Sofia Saturday to clear an international scandal about the construction of a Bulgarian Formula 1 track, has received not just racket demands but also threats.
The "Bulgarian F1-gate" erupted over the past week starting after the press office of the Bulgarian Economy Ministry reported incorrect information about a cooperation agreement between the Ministry and Abu Dhabi consortium Emirates Associated Business Group (EABG), allegedly for the construction of a Formula 1 track near Sofia.
It received a new spin on Saturday when EABG representative Anwar Badwan, whose position at the consortium is reported to be that of an "adviser", announced that as the Formula 1 scandal developed, he had received a racketeering email reading, "Send USD 94 M in order to iron out the misunderstandings....,
The opposition Socialist Party has reacted with criticism to comments by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov about the uselessness of some Bulgarian embassies and involvement of their staff with private business.
In an almost immediate statement provided to the BGNES agency, the Foreign Policy Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party defines as "unacceptable" and "damaging" the Prime Minister's comments, in which he justified the apparently planned shutting of a number of Bulgarian diplomatic missions with the argument that many members of the diplomatic corps did not do their job properly and served their private interests abroad.
"These statements on part of the head of the Bulgarian government made in principle, without specific names and the proper evidence damage the prestige of the Bulgarian diplomats as a whole and practically shatter the legitimacy of the Bulgarian diplomatic corps before our partners," declared the Socialist Party.
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Bulgaria's national football team has lost two of its key players to injuries two days before its second Euro 2012 qualification match against Montenegro.
The match is seen as being of crucial importance for preserving Bulgaria's chances to make it to Euro 2012 after the national team suffered a devastating 4:0 loss from England at Wembley on Friday in its first game from the qualification cycle.
The midfielder of the Russian FC Rostov Chavdar Yankov and right wingback of the Dutch team PSV Eindhoven Stanislav Manolev will not be able to play against Montenegro on Tuesday because of injuries they suffered during the national team's match against England.
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Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has confirmed indirectly the reports about the closing of Bulgarian diplomatic missions abroad.
"We currently have embassies that we really don't know why we have them. There are employees of the Foreign Ministry working outside Bulgaria who are there only to favor their private business, and have not anything for our country," Borisov declared in the village of Voyvodinovo near Plovdiv on Sunday when asked about the rumors of shutting dozens of embassies.
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After an international scandal involving an Abu Dhabi company, the project for construction of a Formula 1 racetrack near Sofia has run into further trouble facing opposition from several NGOs.
This time, however, the criticism has targeted the location of the future circuit proposed by the government – the site of the former air base near the village of Dobroslavtsi – as well as the economic feasibility of the project.
Several NGOs - the "New Territorial Organization Plan" initiative, "Citizens for Sofia", GEO Group, Eco-Association Vrabnitsa-Nadezhda – gave a news conference Sunday insisting that the Dobroslavtsi airbase is not the best place to build a Formula 1 track.
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German Bundesliga team Borussia Dortmund has formally loaned Bulgarian striker Dimitar Rangelov to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
An announcement on the website of the Israeli club has made it clear that Rangelov has passed all tests successfully, and has signed a contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The 27-year-old Bulgarian striker will play on loan for Maccabi for one season, and the Israeli club will have the right to purchase him from Borussia if they are satisfied with his performance.
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CEO of Enel SpA, Fulvio Conti, has said the Italian company will sell its stake in Bulgaria's Maritsa East 3 power plant in the fall of 2010.
Conti has made it clear, as cited by Bloomberg, that Enel plans to sell gas distribution assets in Spain by September, and its Bulgarian coal-fired power plant shortly after that.
Bloomberg reminds that Enel is selling assets to help reduce debt by EUR 45 B in 2010....,
Five Russian soldiers have been killed and more than 30 have been wounded in a car bomb attack in the Russian autonomous Republic of Dagestan.
The suicide bomber crashed an explosives-loaded car at a base used by a special motorcycle rifle brigade at Dalny, near the city of Buynaksk. The guards of the base managed to open fire against the car preventing it from penetrating the base and potentially causing many more casualties.
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Bulgaria's Borisov government of the GERB party has been criticized by both co-leaders of its ally, the rightist Blue Coalition, who have predicted a very rough economic situation in 2011.
One of the Blue co-chairs, the leader of the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party Ivan Kostov, pointed out that the Bulgarian economy has been in recession for 20 months, and there were no indications the economic crisis was going away.
He believes the government's hopes to start registering positive economic growth by the end of 2010 will not materialize.
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Bulgaria and Macedonia have marked with memorial services the first year since the death of 15 Bulgarian tourists in the Ohrid Lake on September 5, 2010.
The 15 people drowned in the lake because of the sinking of the antiquated tourist boat Ilinden.
The tragedy was remembered with a memorial in the St....,
There are no indications that the flow of foreign direct investments to Bulgaria is on the increase, according to analyst Georgi Stoev from the Sofia-based consultancy Industry Watch.
Stoev pointed that in the first seven months of 2010 Bulgaria attracted 20 times smaller FDI that it did in the same period of 2009.
He told the Bulgarian National Radio he did not share the view the national economy had already seen the worst part of the economic crisis, and is recovering.
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In August 2010, Bulgaria had an unemployment rate of 9.14%, announced Labor Minister Totyu Mladenov.
The Minister pointed out on Sunday that after the Bulgarian unemployment peaked in February 2010 at 10....,
From The Guardian
By Nick Squires in Trapani, Sicily, and Nick Meo
An ill wind is blowing over Italy's green revolution, as the Mafia seek to capitalise on generous grants for renewable energy.
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