ISSUE 10 The official magazine of Radio Bulgaria Eleven Bulgarian companies enter list of 100 biggest firms in Southeast Europe Nu Boyana film studios - the dream factory at the foot of Mount Vitosha Christo and Jeanne-Claude – the art of freedom BULGARIA THIRD IN ADVENTURE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT INDEX ZOOM/content Refugees - Europe's 4 next big political Scooter riding in Sofia's challenge 14 environs Eleven Bulgarian 5 companies enter list Chelopech – the small of 100 biggest firms municipality with a flair 18 in Southeast Europe Scientists probe deep Black Sea waters in Boyan Petrov: The feeling 6 search of new energy of conquering the mount source 28 without oxygen and sherpas is incredible CoWorkationCamp in Chepelare or how 8 to combine work and entertainment Nu Boyana film studios - the dream factory 10 at the foot of Mount Issue 10, 2015 Vitosha Publisher: Radio Bulgaria/ website: bnr.bg/en email: [email protected], tel: 00359 2 9336 661 Find us on Facebook at Radio Bulgaria English Service Follow us on Twitter at Radio Bulgaria Advertising: [email protected], Sofia, an ancient city tel: 00359 2 9336 633 with a place in the 12 Photos: BGNES, BTA, BNR, Infotourism.net, Veneta Nikolova cultural history of Cover Photo: Luben Grancharov europe Design/ prepress: Dimitar Petrin Issue 10/ ZOOM Bulgaria magazine 3 ZOOM/politics Refugees - Europe's next big political challenge by Iliana Raicheva “The solution to the refugee crisis is for asylum are considered. The EU enter legally, to identify their origin, their beyond the powers of any one country, and Member States must support identity and fingerprint them,” Deputy whichever it might be. Europe can this common effort by providing Prime Minister and Interior Minister solve different crises, whether Greek, personnel and technical assistance,” the Rumyana Bachvarova said in parliament Ukrainian, refugee or any other kind document reads. Brussels now focuses during the first blitz control of the new only when we are together”, said entirely refugee quotas rather than plenary session. “From now on, our President Rossen Plevneliev in his on the problem of illegal immigrants. efforts are directed at having illegal speech on the occasion of the 130th According to the High Representative migrants, mostly entering from Turkey, anniversary of the Reunification of the for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, detained and brought to the registration Principality of Bulgaria with Eastern “we should talk only about a refugee centers to channel the process. Despite Rumelia. On the previous day, the two- crisis, because the majority of the the difficulties and the threefold increase day meeting of EU foreign ministers coming migrants are Syrians, Afghans, in intensity, we have been managing the in Luxembourg ended with yet another Eritreans and Iraqis fleeing the war.” majority of people who cross over to our failed attempt to reach a consensus The EU plans to create a “permanent territory, to grant them this status and on the refugee crisis. Some of the mechanism for settling migrants in to provide them care at refugee centers, participants insisted on mandatory countries of the community, as the which requires our humane attitude.” quotas for refugees, and others - that number of incoming migrants should be According to Deputy PM Bachvarova, border control and trafficking be determined in proportion to the size of the government will take steps to cope combated first. Foreign ministers of the the EU member states,” is the opinion with the migration pressure even if it EU countries declared their desire for the of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of were to increase. Half of the fence along establishment in third countries of safe Luxembourg Jean Asselborn, whose the Bulgarian-Turkish border should be areas for refugees and receipt of their country holds the EU presidency. completed by the end of this autumn, applications, reads a joint declaration It is a priority for Bulgaria to maintain predicts Deputy Prime Minister Rumiana adopted at the meeting. a high level of preparedness for Bachvarova. About 20 km of the facility “The European Commission and any potential increase in migration have already been built, as the full length EU Member States need to establish pressures and to provide the necessary of the fence should cover nearly 130 operational limits in EU countries organization, conditions and care for kilometers. She explained that special and perhaps in neighboring Balkan asylum seekers in the country. openings will be made through which countries, reception centers for “I think that the great merit of our policy people can pass, as the goal is to direct migrants where they will be identified is that we have been managing to cope the immigrant flow to the official border and registered before their applications with this problem and to register all who crossings. 4 ZOOM Bulgaria magazine/Issue 10 ZOOM/economy Eleven Bulgarian companies enter list of 100 biggest firms in Southeast Europe by Iliana Raicheva Eleven Bulgarian companies have In 2014, eighteen local banks placed Twenty five Bulgarian insurance entered the ranking of the one hundred among the one hundred biggest banks in companies placed in the ranking of biggest firms in Southeast Europe. South East Europe, too. A sign that the the one hundred biggest insurers in The traditional SEE Top 100 ranking Bulgarian banking system has managed Southeast Europe. Armeec AD places was organized by SeeNews and was to deal with the turmoil engendered highest in this ranking, occupying the published on the website of Mediapool by the bankruptcy of Bulgaria’s fourth 20th position, followed by Bulstrad news agency. largest bank- Corporate Commercial Vienna Insurance Group and Lev Ins AD Burgas-based Lukoil Neftochim is Bank, the authors of the ranking point insurance companies. Bulgaria’s best performing company out. Unicredit Bulbank placed 8th in the and has kept its third position in the ranking, followed by DSK Bank, which ranking. Aurubis Bulgaria has also kept occupied the 12th position. Both financial its eight position in SEE Top 100. Most institutions kept their positions of last Bulgarian companies which entered year. First Investment Bank, which the ranking are operating in power experienced serious liquidity problems engineering. Kaufland Bulgaria retail in 2014 and had to be supported by the company advanced from 74th position to state, after Brussels gave the green light 61st position in SEE Top 100. Kozloduy to that financial transaction, advanced to nuclear power plant placed 92nd and the the 13th position from its previous 17th Bulgarian Telecommunication Company place. United Bulgarian Bank has kept occupies the 95th position in the ranking. its 23rd position. Eurobank Bulgaria has Eighteen Bulgarian banks entered the advanced from 28th to 24th position in SEE Top 100 ranking of the 100 biggest the ranking and Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria banks in the Southeast region of Europe. moved one position forward to No 25. Issue 10/ ZOOM Bulgaria magazine 5 ZOOM/technology Scientists probe deep Black Sea waters in search of new energy source by Gergana Mancheva team of scientists has the amount of natural gas Bulgaria These experiments aimed at the managed to produce electricity buys. “There will be no greenhouse decomposition of hydrogen sulphide. A from hydrogen sulphide in gas emissions when water from the However, this consumed large amounts the Black Sea. The discovery gives sea is processed,” Professor Beshkov of energy with lots of waste. In our hope to inventors searching for new explains and adds: work, the energy consumption is much and environmentally friendly sources “The idea is to transform energy from lower than the energy we ultimately of energy. The hydrogen sulphide in the deep waters of the Black Sea into obtain. Now, the aim is to obtain a the Black Sea precludes the existence electricity. We have developed an sufficiently high capacity of produced of life in 90% of its waters, but it original fuel cell design, which allows electricity, which would trigger can still be valuable as a renewable for the use of hydrogen sulphide practical interest among potential energy source with great benefits to the and oxygen from the air for the investors. Our work continues and our economy, says Prof. Venko Beshkov production of electricity. The idea of objective is to improve the reliability from the Institute of Chemical the processing technology is our own of the materials and mechanisms used Engineering in Sofia, who led the and the institute has been working on in the fuel cell, making it better suited experiments. The project involves it for four years. During experiments, for practical application. I do not want also scientists from the Institute of the probes of the ‘Academic’ ship to make predictions about the future, Oceanology at the Bulgarian Academy reached a depth of 1,000 meters, but in a year or two we would have an of Sciences, as well as scientists from where the concentration of hydrogen electricity-producing facility located Georgia and Romania. According to sulphide is high enough. We found out in the sea. The aim is to connect it prof. Beshkov, there were some 4.5 that by pumping out water from the to the national electricity grid and billion tonnes of hydrogen sulphide deep sea we actually get much better hopefully, after proving successful, our in the Black Sea, which could results in comparison to laboratory project would attract serious investors. produce around 10-12 TWh annually. experiments. Similar experiments Currently, we enjoy the support and Calculations show the quantity of have been conducted by Bulgarian interest among fellow scientists. They hydrogen sulphide formed in the and Russian scientists for producing are closely following our work on the sea for a year is 10 times more than energy from seawater in the past.