THE controversy surrounding the privatisation of Boyana Film studios moved to Parliament on January 26 after a proposal by opposition MPs.
The proposal, authored by the Ataka Movement and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO - a member of the opposition United Democratic Forces), to set up a parliamentary committee to investigate the sale of Boyana Film to the US company Nu Image came only two days after the buyer signed the deal with the Privatisation Agency (PA).
Many Bulgarian filmmakers have opposed the deal from the very beginning of the privatisation procedure and petitioned Parliament to take action. They claim that the selection of Nu Image was not in the interests of Bulgarian cinema and that the PA favoured Nu Image at the expense of the other candidates - Germany’s Bavaria Film and UK’s Ealing Studios.
After some debates, the MPs decided on January 26 to turn down the motion by Ataka and IMRO, despite disagreement on behalf of the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and its coalition partners - the National Movement Simeon II (NMSII) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
BSP MPs said it was only the court that should rule on the case.
“Parliament can intervene only in the cases of agreements on state loans,” said Mihail Mikov, BSP floor leader. In his view, a decision by Parliament on the deal for Boyana Film would be a gross violation of the division of powers.
Representatives of the filmmakers’ guild were enraged by Parliament’s decision. Film director Nikolai Volev, a member of the government-appointed board of directors of Boyana Film who has been among the speakers of the guild lately, said it was former deputy prime minister and economy minister Lydia Shouleva who was behind the Boyana Film saga.
Media has largely speculated in the past year that while in office, Shouleva had exerted pressure on behalf of Nu Image through the former PA executive director Atanas Bangachev, whom she had appointed.
Emerging from a meeting in Parliament with anti-deal disposed BSP MPs, Volev described Shouleva and her aides as “the octopus Shouleva”. He gave as an example the former deputy economy minister Valentin Purvanov, whose company Bright Consult was hired to make an assessment of the studios. The company, in Volev’s words, has on several occasions changed its evaluation, which looks suspicious.
Volev admitted that the deal was legally faultless and could not be attacked in court. He appealed to the ruling majority to “show political will” and stop the cheap sale of Bulgarian culture.
Shouleva would not respond to Volev’s allegations. She told reporters in Parliament that she was aware of the deal but had no information on it after losing her ministerial position in February 2005. Shouleva found nothing wrong with the desire to inform Parliament of the Boyana Film sale, but added that it was the PA and the court that should be approached by those who disagree with the deal.
Under the contract it signed with the PA on January 24, Nu Image Bulgaria will pay 12.2 million leva for 95 per cent in Boyana Film. To become the owner of the studios, however, the US company would have to comply with two conditions set by the PA.
The first is that the land of Boyana Film, covering an area of 53 hectares, which was taken out of the assets of the studios and transferred to the Culture Ministry, be transferred to the state-owned company Audiovideo Orfei. The second is to sign a mortgage on the land, which will then be transferred to Nu Image ownership for the price of 300 euro a square metre (meaning three million euro a hectare).
