These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on May 21 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- Interior Minister Mihail Mikov suggested a new structure of the ministry, with chef directorates instead of national services, Dnevnik daily said. Thus, the number of managing levels would be decreased, Mikov said.

- Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU funds utilisation Meglena Plougchieva was feverishly trying to meet European Commission’s requirement for a ‘black list’ of companies, which allegedly committed malfeasances with EU funds, Sega daily said. The only possibility for Plougchieva to do so was by amending current legislation, according to the newspaper. The amendments would most probably be in the law on administrative violations.

- Former Interior Ministry chief secretary Valentin Petrov has resigned, Standart daily said. Petrov was dismissed from the post of chief secretary of Interior Ministry in connection to the corruption row in the ministry and after allegations that he had personally controlled drug smuggling in Bulgaria.

- All projects that use EU finds would be collected in a public register within a month, Dora Yankova, head of the National Association of Municipalities said after meeting Deputy Minister Meglena Plougchieva, Monitor daily said. The register would contain data on all projects applying for funding and the their evaluation by the EU.

Society

- State university fees were already close to the ‘psychological border’ of 1000 leva a year, Sega daily said. The most expensive fees were in the medical schools.

Economy

- Early bookings for vacations abroad, strong interest in the resorts of the neighbouring countries and forecast that an increasing number of Bulgarians would spend the summer abroad accompanied the official opening of the summer tourism season in Bulgaria, Dnevnik said. Most of the leading tour operators selling travel packages to foreign destinations registered significant increases, ranging from 10 to 50 per cent, in the number of bookings in 2008, compared with 2007.

- After three hours of negotiations with cargo companies, fuel producers and distributors, the authorities pretended to give up to their demands on the diesel price, Sega said. The main decision taken was that the fuel excise would remain unchanged in 2009 and 2010.

- ArcelorMittal granted Kremikovtzi steel mill 30 million leva for emergency funding, Kremikovtzi announced, as quoted by Monitor. The company, owned by Lakshmi Mittal, older brother of current Kremikovtzi owner Pramod, required in return that Kremikovtzi did not negotiate with other investor in the next 60 days, the daily said.