November is the time when Parliament debates and passes the following year's draft budget and the issue of The Sofia Echo published on November 7 2008 reports about the Government's proposals in the light of challenges of the global financial crisis and their effect on Bulgaria.

On the domestic front, we report about the dead-end to the debates on forming a Parliament committee that would oversee the State Agency for National Security have reached. Svetlana Guineva tells the sad story of Bulgarian children with disabilities who are facing hard time in being almost deprived of having access to education.

In this issue of The Sofia Echo, Spasena Baramova presents the European Commission annual report on EU enlargement, including Croatia, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.

In the business section, the newspaper reports on the energy efficiency of Bulgarian households, much of which unfortunately is due to their low income. Alex Bivol goes trough the latest development of the establishment of the Silver Fund, the Government's initiative meant to strengthen the pension system.

The Sofia Echo also reports on a survey conducted by a large international HR company that said that Bulgarian workers are taking twice as much sick leave than their European colleagues.

The Sofia Echo also offers a reprint of the first and only interview of Ahmed Dogan, leader of junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, after the suicide of his assistant Ahmed Emin in Dogan's house. The interview was published by Bulgarian-language Trud daily and The Sofia Echo offers the only versino in English.

As ever, The Sofia Echo includes popular favourites such as venue and restaurant reviews, listings of what's on at the movies, on television and in the world of theatre and arts and our weekly social pages.

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