On Tuesday the Executive Director of the Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Yancho Yanev, as well as two others were detained after the prosecution accused them of embezzlement of EU funds by using incorrect data. The case is serious not only because the agency manages a budget of some 113 million euros, but also because after the appointment of its former director, there was a whole series of scandals.

Two days before the arrest of Yanev, the prosecution demanded that President of the Parliamentary Committee on Energy Delyan Dobrev should be stripped of his immunity on charges that when he was energy minister in the first government of Boyko Borissov, he wilfully caused damage of more than 4.5 million euros to the Natsionalna Elektricheska Kompania /NEK/. Prosecution says that when in March 2013 the government and parliament stopped the Belene NPP project, the minister did not suspend an agreement with „Parsons" for consultancy services over the project. A week earlier again in relation to "Belene," the prosecution raised charges against former CEO of NEK, Lyubomir Velkov and against Mardik Papazian for causing losses of over 77 million euros to the company after the sale of an old reactor for Belene NPP. Charges  were raised also against former Minister of Economy and Energy in the cabinet of Sergey Stanishev - Petar Dimitrov, as he did not exercise control on the two officials. In October Dimitrov become subject to sanctions along with two other former ministers of the BSP. He was dismissed as a board member of state-owned company "Radioactive Waste." Former Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov lost his position from the board of the Lukoil – Neftochim refinery, while former minister of construction Asen Gagauzov lost his position as a representative of the Bulgarian Energy Holding in the ICGB company engaged in the construction of the Bulgarian-Greek gas connection.

It is claimed that in all these cases there were no political motives behind charges, as not only socialist have become target of the prosecution but also senior officials appointed by the ruling GERB party. In support of the claims of the absence of political motivation it was said that allegations come not from the executive power but from the prosecution and that they are not related to political issues but to financial affairs. But not all share this view. Petar Dimitrov, for example, believes that there are election purposes behind the charges against him. Delyan Dobrev from GERB even admitted that both Dimitrov and Ovcharov were removed from their positions in state-owned companies because they were ministers of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Bulgarian society has previously seen charges raised against representatives of the state administration, but does not remember results or convictions. Verdicts will be expected now, and according to them people would decide about the true motivation of charges. The EU also expects verdicts and not just ostentatious actions.

English: Alexander Markov