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KAS MP SOE Redebeitrag AM En
REPORT Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung MEDIA MONITORING LABORATORY February 2015 Media under their own momentum: www.fmd.bg The deficient will to change www.kas.de Foundation Media Democracy (FMD) and KAS. In summary, the main findings, by the Media Program South East Europe of areas of monitoring, include: the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) present the joint annual report on the MEDIA DISCOURSE state of the Bulgarian media environment in 2014. The study summarises the trends Among the most striking images in the coverage of socio-political constructed by Bulgarian media in 2014 was developments in the country. During the the presentation of patriotism as the monitored period dynamic processes sanctuary of identity. Among the most unfolded – European Parliament elections watched television events during the year and early elections to the National turned to be the Klitschko-Pulev boxing Assembly took place, three governments match. The event inflamed social networks, changed in the country’s governance. morning shows, commentary journalism. It was presented not simply as boxing, but as The unstable political situation has also an occasion for national euphoria. Such affected the media environment, in which a discourse fitted into the more general trend number of important problems have failed of nourishing patriotic passions which to find a solution. During the year, self- through the stadium language, but also regulation was virtually blocked. A vast through the media language, are easily majority of the media continued operating mobilised into street and political forms of at a loss. For many of them the problem symbolic and physical violence against with the ownership clarification remained others (Roma, refugees, the sexually and unresolved. -
Bulgaria 2013 Human Rights Report
BULGARIA 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Republic of Bulgaria is a parliamentary democracy. The constitution vests legislative authority in the unicameral National Assembly (Narodno Sabranie). A coalition government headed by a prime minister led the country. Observers characterized the parliamentary elections in May as complying “with the fundamental freedoms of expression, association, and assembly” but also noted pervasive allegations of vote buying and a lack of transparency. Authorities maintained effective control over the security forces. Security forces committed human rights abuses, including excessive use of force, arbitrary arrest, and harassment and intimidation. There were allegations of unlawful wiretapping. The marginalization of the Romani minority remained the country’s most pressing human rights problem. The continued deterioration of the media environment and increase in media self-censorship due to corporate and political pressure were also problematic. Corruption continued to be a drag on the government’s capabilities and undermined public and business confidence in the judiciary and other government institutions. Other human rights problems included overcrowding and harsh conditions in prisons and detention facilities. There were also long delays in the judicial system; reports of abuse of wiretapping; religious discrimination and harassment; harsh conditions in refugee centers; violence and discrimination against women; violence against children; increasing online anti-Semitism; trafficking in persons; discrimination against persons with disabilities; discrimination against members of the Romani and Turkish ethnic minorities; and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons and persons with HIV/AIDS. The government took steps to prosecute and punish officials in the security services and elsewhere in the government who committed abuses, but their actions were insufficient, and impunity was a problem. -
Human Rights in Bulgaria in 2014
HUMAN RIGHTS IN BULGARIA IN 2014 Annual report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee April 2015 2 The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee is an independent non-governmental organisation for the protection of human rights. It was founded on 14 July 1992. This report was produced with the support of the Open Society Institute – Budapest and the Oak Foundation. Human Rights in Bulgaria in 2014 Sofia, March 2015 The report can be freely quoted upon condition that the source is acknowledged. Authors: The report was written by: Antoaneta Nenkova, Atanas Atanasov, Desislava Ivanova, Gergana Yancheva, Dilyana Angelova, Elitsa Gerginova, Zhenya Ivanova, Iliana Savova, Kaloyan Stanev, Krassimir Kanev, Margarita Ilieva, Radoslav Stoyanov, Slavka Kukova, Stanimir Petrov, Yana Buhrer Tavanier. The access to information section is based on materials provided by the Access to Information Programme. English language editor: Desislava Simeonova Publisher: Bulgarian Helsinki Committee 7 Varbitsa Street, 1504 Sofia, Bulgaria Tel. 3592 944 0670 www.bghelsinki.org BULGARIAN HELSINKI COMMITTEE HUMAN RIGHTS IN BULGARIA IN 2014 3 Table of contents 1. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN BULGARIA IN 2014 ................................................................... 4 2. RIGHT TO LIFE, PROTECTION FROM TORTURE, INHUMAN AND DEGRADING TREATMENT ... 6 3. R IG H T TO LIBERTY AND SECURITY O F P E R S O N ........................................................................ 13 4. INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY AND FAIR TRIAL ............................................................. -
May 2009 May 2009
May 2009 May 2009 SUMMARY SUMMARY I. INTRODUCTION: A GENERAL PERSPECTIVE 2 I. INTRODUCTION: A GENERAL PERSPECTIVE 2 II. BULGARIA IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE CHALLENGE OF II. BULGARIA IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE CHALLENGE OF RESPONSIBILITY 9 RESPONSIBILITY 9 II.1. BULGARIA IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: The road towards accession II.1. BULGARIA IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: The road towards accession II.2. JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS: The heart of the crisis II.2. JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS: The heart of the crisis II.3. THE WEAKNESS OF THE BULGARIAN ADMINISTRATION: Overcoming the II.3. THE WEAKNESS OF THE BULGARIAN ADMINISTRATION: Overcoming the lack of administrative capacity lack of administrative capacity III. THE EUROPEAN UNION AND BULGARIA: A TEST FOR EUROPEAN III. THE EUROPEAN UNION AND BULGARIA: A TEST FOR EUROPEAN SOLIDARITY 55 SOLIDARITY 55 III.1. THE SUSPENSION OF EU FUNDS TO BULGARIA: An unprecedented III.1. THE SUSPENSION OF EU FUNDS TO BULGARIA: An unprecedented decision decision III.2. THE MISMANAGEMENT OF EU FUNDS: To preserve European solidarity III.2. THE MISMANAGEMENT OF EU FUNDS: To preserve European solidarity III.3. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL REFORMS: Achieving European living standards III.3. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL REFORMS: Achieving European living standards IV. BUILDING A DYNAMIC PARTNERSHIP 77 IV. BUILDING A DYNAMIC PARTNERSHIP 77 IV.1. STRENGHTENING DIALOGUE: Enhanced cooperation between the European IV.1. STRENGHTENING DIALOGUE: Enhanced cooperation between the European Commission, Member States and the Bulgarian government Commission, Member States and the Bulgarian government IV.2. BULGARIA IN THE EU: Setting up a national European agenda IV.2. -
Bulgarian Parliamentary Elections: a Final Look at the Parties and the Polls
Bulgarian parliamentary elections: a final look at the parties and the polls blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2014/10/03/bulgarian-parliamentary-elections-a-final-look-at-the-parties-and-the- polls/ 03/10/2014 Bulgaria will hold parliamentary elections on 5 October, following the resignation of the country’s government in July. Ahead of the vote, Stuart Brown gives an overview of the background to the elections, each of the main parties and some of the opinion polling on the likely results. On Sunday, Bulgaria will hold parliamentary elections for the second time in less than 18 months. The elections were called after the Bulgarian government, led by Plamen Oresharski, resigned in July, with a caretaker administration fronted by Georgi Bliznashki taking over in the interim. Oresharski’s government had only entered office in May 2013, but had suffered a series of problems in its short time in power. This was the second time the Bulgarian government had resigned in the last two years, following the collapse of Boyko Borisov’s government in February 2013. Background to the 2014 elections The current period of political instability in Bulgaria can be traced back to a series of mass protests against Borisov’s government in 2013, chiefly over the issue of high electricity prices. Borisov, the leader of the largest centre-right party in Bulgaria, GERB, is a controversial figure, who has faced a number of allegations of corruption since winning power in 2009. As a result of the scale of the protests, he opted to stand down as Prime Minister, with new elections being called for May 2013. -
The Burden of Belonging: Romanian and Bulgarian Foreign Policy in the New Era
Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, Volume 11, Number 3, September 2009 The burden of belonging: Romanian and Bulgarian foreign policy in the new era RONALD H. LINDEN In the world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. Oscar Wilde Introduction For all states, joining an international organization extracts a price. There are expectations, demands, conditions, more or less explicitly spelled out, that will apply to those wanting to become part of an ongoing international enterprise. This applies even to powerful countries and is one of the reasons why realist notions of foreign policy have typically included injunctions against alliance membership.1 For smaller countries in particular, such as the former communist countries of Central and East Europe, the path to achieving membership in international organizations has been especially challenging. The literature is vast and growing on EU expectations and conditions applied to the East European states since membership became a possibility in the mid-1990s.2 Virtually all of it focuses on these states’ adaptation of their domestic political and economic structures, changes in laws and processes including, for example, the adoption into domestic law of the 80,000-page acquis communautaire of the EU. The foreign policies of these states have been less frequently examined against the backdrop of their new membership in the international organizations Downloaded By: [Linden, Ronald H.] At: 12:24 17 September 2009 1 In his discussion of the ‘Nine Rules’ of diplomacy, Hans Morgenthau wrote, ‘Never allow a weak ally to make decisions for you. -
Assessing the Perspectives of Bulgarian – Serbian Relations
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Policy Documentation Center Assessing the Perspectives of Bulgarian – Serbian Relations Sofia 2003 Introduction Over the 20th century the political and intrastate relations between Bulgaria and Serbia have been particularly complex. The occurring isolation between both countries has led to the unrealistic comprehension of the “other”, building stereotypes. Even after the end of the Cold War these trends in the bilateral relations have not been overcome because of the ten years escalating crisis in former Yugoslavia that hindered the improvement of the political, economic and cultural relations between both states. Although there are no serious political problems between countries under examination, a national political rivalry is structuring their bilateral relations. As far as any interaction between the two states exists, it is on central level, while the cooperation on regional and municipal level is rather an exception. There is no established practice in every day communication between different social, professional, territorial and civic communities from Bulgaria and Serbia, which brings about isolation in the bilateral relations. On this basis it could be inferred that the development of the bilateral relations is not a natural process as far as during the referred period, both countries are experiencing crisis, lack of enough resources on central political level, and are unable to optimize those civil factors that are capable of powering up the major aspects of cooperation. The changes in Serbia since the end of 2000 have set a new political opportunity for commencing a dialogue between both states. The main question here is how this dialogue will be carried on in the future. -
Bulgarian Politics Might Be on the Verge of Systemic Change This Is Hardly Good News for the Country As It May Lead to Instability and Turbulence > Page 03
ECONOMY/POLITICS/ENERGY 01 NOVEMBER- JANUARY | WWW.CAPITAL.BG BULGARIAN POLITICS MIGHT BE ON THE VERGE OF SYSTEMIC CHANGE THIS IS HARDLY GOOD NEWS FOR THE COUNTRY AS IT MAY LEAD TO INSTABILITY AND TURBULENCE > PAGE 03 THE PHONY BATTLE FOR BTC VTB SELLS BULGARIAN TELECOMS OPERATOR TO…VTB > PAGE 31 IS BULGARIA ENTERING A DEBT SPIRAL? SINCE 2008 BULGARIAN GOVERNMENTS HAVE FAILED TO RESTRAIN THE GROWING FISCAL DEFICIT, WHICH COULD BE A LONG- TERM PROBLEM FOR THE BUDGET > PAGE 23 In this issue: Ilin Stanev, 03 Managing editor BULGARIAN POLITICS MIGHT BE ON THE VERGE OF SYSTEMIC CHANGE This is hardly good news for the country as it may lead to instability and turbulence For many years a lot of our readers have asked us to do an English language version of Capital. Capital, 17 aft er all, is the closest thing in Bulgaria to a newspaper ALWAYS WITH EUROPE, NEVER AGAINST of record, but, despite Google’s best eff orts (thank you, RUSSIA guys!), its authoritative voice remains restricted mainly Is Bulgaria under Boyko Borissov still a to Bulgarian readers. viable Western partner? Or is it Russia’s Now you have it. Trojan horse in the EU? KQuarterly is not simply an abridged version of 23 Capital Weekly and Capital Daily. We publish original IS BULGARIA ENTERING A DEBT SPIRAL? articles that summarize the main events in the last Since 2008 Bulgarian governments have quarter of the year and shed some light on the upcoming failed to restrain the growing fi scal defi cit, months. KQ enjoys the benefi t of having more time which could be a long-term problem for the to think through the chaotic Bulgarian political and budget business life and to present a clear picture of its various developments and shenanigans. -
B a R O M E T E R Bulgaria’S Political Parties Year 14, Issue 4, October - December 2014
Georgi Karasimeonov (Ed.) B A R O M E T E R Bulgaria’s Political Parties Year 14, Issue 4, October - December 2014 Forming a government regularly elected by the National Assembly was an important step in the direction of overcoming the political and parliamentary crisis in this country. Despite the difficulties that the process of composing the government went through, at this stage it will have the necessary parliamentary support for passing the budget for next year and for taking steps for the financial stabilization of the country. These are the urgent measures that the ruling majority has to resolve in the short term. The election victory and forming a government led by Boyko Borisov is of paramount importance for the establishment of GERB as a leading political force in the country. Borisov is the first politician to be Prime Minister for a second term since the start of the democratic changes in the country. The Reformist Bloc achieved one of their goals – representation in Parliament and par- ticipation in the Executive. At the same time, there are still some serious challenges the Bloc is facing related to the assertion of its unity. The controversies between DSB and BCMon convening a congress to elect a party leader are about to undermine the frag- ile center right coalition. In its turn, this creates a danger for the integrity of the ruling coalition. Imprint Orders All texts are available online Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung www.fes.bg 97, Knjaz Boris I St. Commercial use of all media The views expressed in this publication published by the Friedrich- are not necessarily those of the Responsible: Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung or of the Regine Schubert, Director not permitted without the organization for which the author works. -
POSITIVE ELECTION COMPAIGN in the GAP BETWEEN THEORY and PRACTICE Katia Mihailova1
YEARBOOK OF UNWE 2020 (1), PC – UNWE ISSN (print): 1312-5486; ISSN (online): 2534-8949; http://unwe-yearbook.org/en POSITIVE ELECTION COMPAIGN IN THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE Katia Mihailova1 e-mail: [email protected] Abstract The paper presents research on the correspondence of the theoretical definition and the practical understanding and application by Bulgarian candidates for political posts in the elections hold in 2014 – 2019 of the concept "positive election campaign". The questions are: does the meaning that the candidates attach to the term "positive campaign" correspond to its scientifically determined theoretical definition and how do the concept and its application correlate? The hypothesis states that (1) the phrase "positive campaign" is a key statement in the rhetoric of candidates; (2) the more conquered a country turns out to be, the more often the candidates for power build their pre-election political statements on the concept; (3) most often the election candidates mean a campaign with no compromising materials or hate speech, held in a spirit of good tone and ethics, promising more effective governance and a better future when they use the concept "positive campaign"; (4) the theoretical definition of the concept needs to be further developed and conceptualized within the paradigm of positivism. The hypotheses are tested by a media monitoring which identified 130 media publications covering candidates’ statements with the phrase "positive campaign" and content analyses. Key words: election campaign, positive campaigning, elections, political communication, pre-election rhetoric, positivism JEL: Y800 Introduction Free and fair political elections are a key tool for establishing power in democratic societies. -
Serbia and Bulgaria Was Started in March 2006 Through a Joint Committee Session in Sofia Which Took the Task to Prepare the Project
Milan Igrutinović BILATERAL RELATIONS AND OPEN ISSUES BETWEEN BULGARIA AND SERBIA IN THE CONTEXT OF SERBIA’S EU ACCESSION PROCESS CENTER FOR APPLIED EUROPEAN STUDIES 2017 INTRODUCTION A look at Serbian bilateral relations with its neighbors shows us that Bulgaria holds a position of one of three "old neighbors", a country that had a border and diplomatic relations with it before the collapse of the SFRY. Actually, diplomatic relations with Bulgaria reach further in the past than with any other country, and are a few months older than the ones with Romania, so we can say that Bulgaria is the "oldest" Serbian neighbor, if we measure it like this. Besides a similar position towards the Ottoman Empire and common heritage of gaining independence from it, two countries waged four wars in a 60-year span (1885-1944), all while changing border, alliances and foreign policy orientations. Still, in the period that we are looking at, which is present time, we can say that relations are sufficiently stable and cordial, that they open the way for further cooperation and that certain issues are being dealt with in reasonable and satisfactory way. In the following section we will briefly show a history of relations until 5 October 2000, that is to the end of period which, in its last phase, has been marked by the collapse of Yugoslavia and the international isolation, and then pay more attention to the relations after 2000 with a closer look at some more relevant topics of bilateral relations. * * * Serbian - Bulgarian diplomatic contacts have started right after the Berlin Congress of July 1878, when Serbian Principality gained international recognition of sovereignty and independence. -
Sr-Bg-ENG (Pdf)
POLICY STUDY BULGARIANS IN SERBIA AND Serbian-BULGARIAN RELATIONS IN THE LIGHT OF SERBIA’S EUROPEAN INTEGRATION WORKING PAPER Belgrade 2013 PUBLISHERS ISAC Fund International and Security Affairs Centre Kapetan Mišina 5 11000 Belgrade www.isac-fund.org Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Office in Belgrade Dositejeva 51 11000 Belgrade www.fes.rs EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Nikola Petrović Žarko Petrović, Research Director Igor Novaković, Chief Researcher TransLATION Ana Selić DESIGN AND LAYOUT Marko Zakovski Belgrade 2013 The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the researchers and do not necessarily reflect the policy and position of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the ISAC Fund. ABBREVIATIONS CEFTA – Central European Free Trade Agreement CEI – Central European Initiative DS – Democratic Party DSS – Democratic Party of Serbia EU – European Union GERB - Citizens for Bulgaria’s European Development (a Bulgarian political party) IPA – Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, an EU program for candidate and potential candidate countries LDP – Liberal Democratic Party NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization NR Bulgaria – People’s Republic of Bulgaria PUPS – Party of United Pensioners of Serbia SDA – Party of Democratic Action SDP – Social Democratic Party SDPS – Social Democratic Party of Serbia SECI – Southeast European Cooperative Initiative SFRJ – Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia SELEC – Southeast European Law Enforcement Centre SEPCA – Southeast Europe Police Chiefs Association SNS – Serbian Progressive Party SPC –