Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry was to order by the end of 2007 the supply of 1000 vehicles for the needs of the law enforcement officers in this country, Interor Minister Roumen Petkov said on October 23, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

This was to become the largest vehicle supply deal in Bulgaria in the past 30 years.

Around 80 new cars, 30 of them all-terrain vehicles, would be distributed among the police departments all over Bulgaria in the next few months, Petkov said.

By the end of 2009, the Interior Ministry would invest around 130 million euro in border security, as a large portion of Bulgaria’s frontier was the outside border of the European Union (EU). Part of the money would be spent on buying 12 sea vessels to guard Bulgaria’s Black Sea shore. The ministry also planned to buy four helicopters, two non-piloted aircraft and more all-terrain vehicles, Petkov said.

Funds would be spent on completing the development of an integrated system for border control and supervision. The river Danube, as an important transport corridor for the EU, would continue to be guarded. An agreement with Romania on that was to be signed by the end of 2007.
 
Before 2008, the Interior Ministry would spend 40 million euro on different projects. Within the next 20 days two new coast-guard vessels were to be launched after arriving in Bourgas. Last year, Bulgarian coast guard intercepted almost 300 ships and smaller vessels that violated the country’s territorial waters in the Black Sea. This posed a serious problem for the EU, Petkov said.