Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Press review

Photo: Maria Peeva

Two days after Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova stated that members of terrorist groups would attempt to cross over into Bulgaria on their way to Western Europe, a Dutch woman was apprehended at Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint on suspicion of terrorism, Sega newspaper writes on its front page. This is not the first time terrorism suspects have been apprehended, but it is the first time a suspect has been arrested in an attempt to cross over in the opposite direction – towards Turkey, the newspaper adds. 

“Living on the cheap in Greece – forget about it in 2017”, reads a headline carried by Trud newspaper. Excise duties and taxes are going up in Greece as of 1 January, 2017, the paper adds, and that will mean a hike in the prices of fuels, cigarettes, coffee, beer etc. What effect the new, higher taxes will have on the price of package tours is yet to be seen, a member of the Association of Tour Operators and Travel Agents comments for Trud. At this point the number of Bulgarians who have made early holiday bookings in Greece has doubled. 

Monitor warns that a flu epidemic is in the offing in eight regions of Bulgaria. The Regional Health Inspectorate comments for 24 Chassa that dozens of people in Plovdiv have been coming down with influenza. Besides the flu, people have been contracting other respiratory diseases and viral infections. More and more people have been calling emergency rooms, some have been hospitalized. 

In an interview for 24 Chassa, Vasil Velev, chairman of the Industrial Capital Association in Bulgaria proposes that young people graduating from university be obliged to work five years in the country and if they choose to leave Bulgaria – that they reimburse any scholarships they have received, or that their employers pay transfer rights. There is an acute shortage of any kind of workers on the labour market, he said, and they have to be imported, even from Bangladesh and Vietnam. 

Regarding Ministry of Education data that there are close to 900,000 children studying foreign languages in Bulgaria, Standart writes that Russian is the second most popular language after English, with German coming third. Almost 2,000 children in the country have chosen to study Chinese or Japanese, and the paper comments that this is probably their parents’ choice as a good career opportunity. 

President Rosen Plevneliev calls on Boyko Borissov’s outgoing government to nominate a candidate for European commissioner, because otherwise this decision may have to be made after the early parliamentary elections, writes Capital. From the interview the president gave for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Capital highlights his thesis that consensus on the choice of Bulgaria’s next European commissioner must be reached by the dominant political forces. 
Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov
English version: Milena Daynova 


Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Iliya Krastev

Bulgaria and Romania dominate the outsourced business services sector in Southeast Europe

Bulgaria and Romania continue to dominate the outsourced business services sector in Southeast Europe, with Bucharest and Sofia hosting 43% of the region's suppliers. This is stated in a report on the outsourcing industry in Southeast Europe 2023. It was..

published on 11/8/24 5:56 PM

The first case for partial annulment of the elections has been opened

The first lawsuit requesting a partial annulment of the elections is already a fact. Shortly after "There is Such a People" party submitted a request to challenge the legality of the election of MPs in 52 polling stations in the early..

published on 11/8/24 5:52 PM

No arrests have been made following last night's violent protest in front of the National Theater

No arrests have been made for last night's riots in front of the Ivan Vazov National Theater in Sofia during a protest against the new prodution "Guns and the Man", directed by John Malkovich. This was announced to BNT by the Minister of Internal..

published on 11/8/24 3:16 PM