The Bulgarian President and political leaders criticised Bulgarian education and healthcare in separate television appearances before the new year, but did not raise the issue of replacing respective ministers, Dnevnik daily said.

"2007 was a succeful year for Bulgarians, but there are areas in which changes happen very slowly. No one will come from Brussels to fix our education and healthcare systems," President Georgi Purvanov told Bulgaria's BBT television on December 31 2007.

Leader of the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), Simeon Saxe-Coburg said a day earlier in the same television programme that these were the two most problematic areas. When asked if he would demand changes in government, considering that Education Minister Daniel Vulchev is from his party, Saxe-Coburg said "NMSP is part of the coalition and it would not be correct to demand changes in the Cabinet when the Prime Minster does not foresee such changes".

Reforms in healthcare and education, together with the modernisation of the infrastructure of the country, would be main priorities for 2008, head of the parliamentary group of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Mihail Mikov told BTA.