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

Press Review

Photo: Maria Peeva

The Bulgarian press today pays considerable attention to a controversy related to the status of the program of the previous government for renovation of residential buildings in Bulgaria.

Referring to a statement of caretaker Minister of Regional Development Spas Nikolov, newspaper "Trud" writes that "Money for renovation is not enough." The budget of 1 billion euro under the program was sufficient for just 2022 buildings that are in various stages of renovation, but there are other 2000 that submitted documents for funding and another 2,000 in the process of creating associations. A headline in “Sega” reads that "Money was spent in advance" and in January 2016 the Regional Ministry asked the Bulgarian Bank for Development to suspend new agreements for funding. However, mayors were not informed about this and they continued to sign agreements, believing that there was enough money. On the other hand, the caretaker government found that prices for repairs are unreasonably high. The program started with prices of 150 euro per square meter that were later reduced to 70 euro but this is still high as previous European programs achieved the same result with 50 euro per square meter. In some cases there were inadmissible activities such as landscaping around buildings, new elevators and other improvements that have little to do with the idea of ​​"energy efficiency".

"24 Hours" quotes former Minister of Regional Development Lilyana Pavlova, who said that published information shows the caretaker government taking side in the election campaign and the only true finding was that interest in the program was huge. According to Pavlova, the criticism of the caretaker government actually gives opponents of GERB chances for attacking the most successful policies of the "Borisov 2' Cabinet, which were infrastructure and renovation.



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

Nine arrested in operation against sexual exploitation of children

Nine people aged between 35 and 48 have been arrested in special police operations by the Directorate General for Combating Organised Crime against sexual exploitation of children. Two of those arrested had used false identities to contact young..

published on 10/19/24 4:03 PM

Construction of National Children's Hospital to start next year

Construction of the National Children's Hospital will begin in June next year , interim Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev said at a briefing. The hospital will have 26 wards and about 400 beds . It will provide complex care for young patients. "The..

published on 10/19/24 3:39 PM
Снимката е илюстративна.

Premises of a party contesting the elections set on fire

A fire broke out in the Varna office of a party which was represented in the last National Assembly and which is contesting the forthcoming elections on 27 October. The premises, located in a building in the centre of the city, were completely burnt..

published on 10/19/24 12:18 PM