The EBRD’s Board of Directors has approved a €150 million sovereign loan to the Republic of Serbia to finance the construction of a new motorway section in Serbia, E-80, along the strategic Corridor X.
New Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov says that Bulgaria faces a 6.3 per cent economic downturn this year, as fellow ministers argue that the economy is in worse shape than presented by the previous adminstration.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development revised down its projections for the economic growth of Balkan states, with Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Croatia expected to grow by two percent or less this year due to the global financial crisis.
Supplies of Russian gas via Ukraine to Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia were reduced or halted on Tuesday because of a dispute between Moscow and Kiev.
Sofia city hall inspectors have issued more than 1,400 fines of 20 leva each to people who failed to clean up the snow around entrances to their buildings, local media reported.
From Italy across the Balkans to Bulgaria, local communities appear eager to join Russia’s ambitious gas pipeline project, despite the risk of growing energy dependency on Moscow.
The president of the European Commission has called on Bulgaria to speed up reforms, particularly in the judiciary, after it was stripped of EU funds last month for failing to deal with fraud.
Bulgaria has secured a tentative deal to receive gas supplies from energy-rich Turkmenistan that could lay the grounds for increased gas deliveries to Europe from the Central Asian state.
Balkan states are gambling on the nuclear option as the best way to reduce the energy shortage but whether the risks pay off remains to be seen.
Grain farmers from all over Bulgaria took part in protests amid concern that fraudulent practices by some farmers would cause the EU to cut further aid to Sofia.