Bulgaria Deputy PM Lays out Government's 2010 Priorities

Bulgarian Deputy PM Simeon Djankov addresses Sofia University students, and outlines the government's priorities for 2010. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Djankov, in an address to students at Sofia University, has stated on Thursday that he would definitely resign if he did not manage to deal with the economic crisis, but also said that he believes he would succeed.

According to him, the correct fiscal policy was the envisaged deficit of about BGN 500 M in the 2010 budget. "You will see in the next few months that this will prove to be so. Priority number one for Djankov are the European funds - they will continue the way they should do, rather than the way they have been going in recent years," he stated.

According to him, this meant unblocking some funds, to launch the EU program JEREMIE*, and to persuade the European Commission and Brussels that Bulgaria was directly concerned that European funds reach those for whom they are intended.

The Deputy PM said he was relying on a positive assessment of compliance by the EC, after the previous two had been negative.

Second among Djankov's tasks for 2010 was, he stated, an exit from the economic crisis. This, he said, depended largely on whether Bulgaria would receive EU funding. It was forthcoming by the end of February for the state to pay off more than BGN 0,5 B.

His third priority was the liberalization of the non-banking financial sector and the fourth was reform of the state administration.

According to Djankov, Bulgaria has an excessive number of bureaucrats per capita, particularly in agriculture and defense. In his words, it appears that in the past few years, all ministries, without exception, had introduced a non-transparent system of funding - an additional financial incentive. This meant that the basic salary of employees was doubled, and to it was added another 10%. If they worked with EU funds, it was even doubled again.

The fifth priority of the government as a whole and of Djankov in particular was Bulgaria's entry to the Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II).

The sixth priority was higher education and "perhaps science". According to the minister, it was necessary for science to return to the universities. He said he believed that higher education throughout the country was not up to standard.

The other priorities in the Bulgarian government's work would include health care reform, and the Customs and the Revenue Agency, which according to him, already had the required structure and ecology. Djanlkov said he believed that the issue of the removal of subsidies for political parties, in GERB's opinion, was not feasible because the party currently had the greatest number of MPs in the 41st National Assembly.

"If I tell you what my opinion is, I will get my ears pulled a lot after that," he said.

Asked what would happen if the government failed to deal with the crisis, he said: "The first reaction would be that the finance minister should be dismissed."

Djankov added, however, that the government was prepared for the worse scenario, if the crisis were to last longer than his expectations. He was categorical that his views has not changed with regard to NPP Belene. and stated that, within the next month, the government would come up with its strategy for energy.

JEREMIE*: Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises, is an initiative of the European Commission (EC) together with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF), to promote increased access to finance for the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the regions of the EU.

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