Bulgaria’s Parliament was set to resume sitting on September 1 2010, with top agenda items including reform of health care and of the judiciary and a new electoral law, while Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergei Stanishev said that he would be seeking support for a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s Cabinet – while Borissov boasted of the praise that his Government had received from several quarters.
 
Stanishev said on August 31 that consultations with all parties outside Government about a no-confidence motion would start as soon as the new political season was underway.
 
After the July 2009 national parliamentary elections, Borissov opted to govern solely from the ranks of his own party, the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (known by its Bulgarian abbreviation as GERB).
 
According to Stanishev, quoted by local website Focus, everyone who did not support the Government was a potential partner in the motion of no confidence. "We have repeatedly reiterated our position about this government, it is growing more and more harmful to the state," according to Stanishev, who was prime minister at the head of a tripartite coalition that was trounced by Borissov’s party in 2009.
 
Speaking on August 31, Borissov said that he hoped that everyone who wanted Bulgaria to have a positive economic outlook would support his Government’s policies.
 
Reacting to an announcement by Moody’s Investors Service that it had confirmed Bulgaria’s Baa3 credit rating with a positive outlook, Borissov said: "After the positive European Commission report, after the World Bank report, after the Standard and Poor’s forecast, now Bulgaria gets a new confirmation of its rating with a positive outlook from another rating agency. Amid a harsh economic crisis this is the best confirmation of the prospect of the economic policy the government is implementing. I once again call on everyone who wants Bulgaria to have a positive economic outlook to support our policy".
 
A day earlier, the Government announced that World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick, who visited Bulgaria in early August, had written to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that he was impressed with the speed at which Borissov was implementing reforms and with the successes in Bulgaria’s fight against organised crime and corruption.
 
The World Bank was contemplating lending Bulgaria large sums to develop road and railway infrastructure, Zoellick said.
 
In recent months, Borissov and his Government have been given acknowledgement for making progress from various quarters, from the European Commission in its report on the country’s endeavours to come up to EU standards in justice and home affairs, to US ambassador James Warlick, who reacted to the EC report by welcoming "the strong reform momentum" that Bulgaria had shown since the EC’s July 2009 report.

This included the amendments to the criminal procedure code which he deemed to be "vital" in the fight against organised crime and corruption. Warlick added, however, that work remained to be done.
 
The Speaker of Bulgaria’s Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, said in a television interview on August 31 that the topmost priorities in the new session of Parliament would be reform of health care and of the judiciary, and the adoption of a new Electoral Code
 
Separately, interviewed by daily Standart, she said that the autumn plenary session has always prioritised tax legislation and more specifically the adoption of the national budget.
 
"We will also focus on health care reforms, with forthcoming amendments to the Health Act, the  Medicinal Products for Human Use Act and the Health Insurance Act."
 
Another major priority would be the concerns raised in the EC report, the proposal by GERB to set up special tribunals on organised crime and the measures that the Government had taken in response to the EC report, she said.
 
On August 30, there was criticism from Ivan Kostov, a former prime minister and former finance minister, now the leader of the right-wing Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and co-leader of the Blue Coalition.
 
He told a news conference that the shadow economy was gnawing away an increasing portion of Bulgaria’s budget revenue, Dnevnik reported.
 
Kostov compared GDP and receipts from value-added tax (VAT) and excise duty in the first half of the year.
 
"The economy is not only falling sleep, but like a bear it is crawling into its den, hiding behind the shadow of the grey economy," he said.

"Although the gross domestic product was exactly the same for the first half of the year, even higher by about 100 million leva than for the first half of last year, VAT and excise receipts are 17 per cent lower. Incomes are the same, but are taxed 17 per cent lower," Kostov said.