Bulgaria subsidises its own political corruption
By Krassen Nikolov Could the country the political elite of which is the most corrupt in the EU and is above the law, become even more corrupt? It turns out that it is possible. In…
corruption
Bulgaria is trying to impress the Juncker Commission with a fake justice reform
By Krassen Nikolov Bulgarian Justice Minister Danail Kirilov announced that he would resign if the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) was not lifted by the end of Juncker Commission’s mandate. The bet is risky, given…
The mystery of the Bulgarian budget surplus
By Krassen Nikolov By the end of May Bulgaria had record budget surplus. Revenues are €1.5 billion higher than planned. This is not much for developed European economies, but for Bulgaria it is a huge…
Dutch Minister Blok blocks Bulgaria’s Schengen accession
By Krassen Nikolov The Netherlands continues to block Bulgaria’s Schengen accession because of the corruption and of another problem highlighted this time – human trafficking. On Wednesday (5 June), Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok, who…
Jourova confirms: Bulgaria’s monitoring will not be lifted
By Georgi Gotev On 26 April Vĕra Jourová, the EU Commissioner for justice, said on 26 April that the Juncker Commission will not lift the monitoring on Bulgaria under the so-called Cooperation and Verification Mechanism…
Now it’s Borissov’s turn to face a real estate scandal
By Georgi Gotev The Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of GERB Boyko Borissov has an interesting biography and is no saint, by any means. And it looks like his arch-foes, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP),…
The biggest fraud with EU money in Bulgaria so far: the guesthouses scam
By Krassen Nikolov European taxpayers have been depleted with dozens of millions of euros as a result of fraud with the European Operational Programme – “Development of Rural Areas“ in Bulgaria. From 2007 to 2013…
Prosecutors press charges following Ahchieva’s investigative articles
By Georgi Gotev The investigative reports by Valia Ahchieva published by this website started producing results. On 1 April Ahchieva revealed the smoking gun behind the road accident that killed 20 people near Svoge: a…
On media freedom, Bulgaria is ‘stable’ at the bottom of Europe
By Krassen Nikolov Journalism has become dangerous in Bulgaria, say Reporters without Borders in their 2019 World Press Freedom Index published on Thursday (18 April). The index evaluates the state of journalism in 180 countries…
Independent candidate for MEP gets record-breaking verdict on corruption charges
By Krassen Nikolov The former district mayor of Sofia’s Mladost district Desislava Ivancheva who runs for the European elections as an independent candidate was sentenced in a corruption case on Monday (15 April). She was…
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