These are some of the top stories in Bulgarian newspapers on November 26 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- Bulgaria finally lost 220 million euro under European Union's Phare pre-accession programme, Dnevnik daily said, reporting on the European Commission (EC) having confirmed its July decision to take away the accreditations of two of the agencies distributing the funds under the programme - one under the Finance Ministry and the other under the Regional Development and Public Works Ministry. The daily quoted EU's enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, who presented EC's motives, as saying that since July, Sofia has given only promises for future actions, which have not led to concrete improvements.

Social

- The State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission conceeded it was helpless coping with energy companies and advised clients to have it out with them on their own if they had been taken more than 19 leva for having their electricity supply restored, Sega daily said. It quoted the deputy head of the commission Valentin Kirchev as saying that the only way for people to get compensations was to lodge a complaint at the relevant energy company and to point as a reason the commission's decision from the beginning of October, according to which the fee is 19 leva.

Economy

- The textile industry in Bulgaria is the yet another sector of the economy that has already felt the first hits of the global financial crisis. This was the common opinion of representatives of the textile branch associations, who discussed the possible ways out of this situation with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin, Dnevnik daily reported.

- Salaries in Bulgaria would probably be paid directly to bank accounts of employees as of 2009, 24 Chassa daily said. It reported this as one of the planned measures against the grey economy that were discussed in a meeting between the Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova, the heads of the National Revenue Agency, the National Social Security Institute, the labour inspectorate and the labour unions, held late on November 24.