Editorial: Crime and codes
It is not that there have been no laws on these issues before; the problem has been that either they have provided for penalties that are too mild, or have not been put into practice at all.
Sat, Nov 21 2009
It is not that there have been no laws on these issues before; the problem has been that either they have provided for penalties that are too mild, or have not been put into practice at all.
Conflicts between Bulgarian presidents and prime ministers have never helped either side.
In a week in which Europe and much of the world commemorated the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is notable that this new November heralded several changes of its own.
The drama around Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security and former prime minister Sergei Stanishev is playing to the full advantage of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov.
Every kidnapping in Bulgaria spawns innuendo about the victim, that somehow the episode is revenge for some other deed in the underworld.
There can be little doubt that European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was correct to say that for countries in South Eastern Europe, the prospect of becoming eligible for negotiating membership of the EU has been a substantial motivation to reform.
It will be interesting to see how Bulgaria’s nomination of Roumyana Zheleva, ambitiously put forward for key portfolios such as energy or enlargement, is treated by those who really count in the bloc.
The term "sin tax" has been applied to excises on tobacco and liquor. In Bulgaria, the idea of taxing smoking to the hilt seems an idea that is overripe.