DEPUTY MINISTERS QUIT
Two deputy ministers resigned on July 2. Deputy Justice Minister Ana Karaivanova and Deputy Culture Minister Ina Kileva both cited personal reasons for resigning. Bulgarian Socialist Party member Karaivanova’s portfolio included Bulgarian citizenship applications, religious needs of prisoners and the Registry Agency. Speculation in Bulgarian-language media said that Karaivanova’s resignation was because of the delay in the launch of the company register. The launch of the register was postponed from July 1 this year to January 1 2008. As The Sofia Echo reported on June 26, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev cited “organisational problems” as the main reason for the delay. Kileva is from the quota of the National Movement for Stability and Progress, formerly the National Movement Simeon II.

CHILDREN IN INSTITUTIONS
A total of 8600 children without parental care are in institutions in Bulgaria. Of them, 75 have already found foster families, said Shirin Mestan, head of the State Agency for Child Protection on July 3. She was speaking at the first session of a three-day conference on reform of the child care system in South Eastern Europe. The forum was held with support from UNICEF, the World Bank, the Swedish government and the European Commission. Maria Calivis, UNICEF Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, said that 126 000 children were in institutional care in South Eastern Europe. This flow of children to the public care system was a sign of insufficient motivation to keep at-risk children with their families, she said.

PRESIDENTIAL VETO
President Georgi Purvanov imposed a veto on the Law amending the Foreigners Act, previously adopted by Parliament. A July 4 statement by the Presidency media office said that Purvanov contested a clause in the Foreigners Act that used the term “foreigner” when the 2004/82/EU Directive uses the word “traveller”. The text is supposed to comply with the directive which is about air companies providing data on their passengers to the relevant authorities. According, to Purvanov the word “foreigner” had a more “narrow” meaning than the word “traveller” and this would limit authorities in their actions.

SMS PARKING
Since July 2, motorists in Sofia are able to pay by SMS for parking in the city’s “blue zone” area. Motorists have to send a text message to the number 1302. For now, only subscribers to MobilTel and Globul mobile operators can use the service. The price of the SMS is one lev. Up to now, the only way to pay for parking was to buy tickets from municipal staff on duty in the area. After an SMS is sent, a reply confirms the payment. Five minutes before the pre-paid hour elapses, the subscriber receives a notification and a further SMS can be sent to extend the stay.