The decision from yesterday’s first sitting of the new cabinet to halt privatization in the country is the highlight in many of the papers today.

Sega writes that Economy Minister Emil Karanikolov, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov and Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev declared state ownership would serve as the foundation for future development. Trud carries an excerpt of the transcript, which shows that Prime Minister Borissov gave instructions to start preparations for halting privatization and putting the issue to public discussion. Emphasizing that the new Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov headed the Privatization and Post-Privatization Control Agency for many years, the socialist Duma newspaper comments ironically, that privatization will be halted by the man who is the agency’s former boss. 24 Chassa also indulges in irony with a headline that reads “If you’ve made a packet count yourself lucky – privatization’s over”. The paper adds that it is the administration’s intention to allow the privatization of state shares in companies by parliamentary decision only, on proposals submitted to the National Assembly by the government, that regional governors will be allowed to sell state-owned property but only with the consent of the finance minister, and that from privatization the focus is now shifting to public-private partnerships and, most of all, concessions. Sega reminds its readers that in the autumn of last year PM Borissov declared he would audit all privatization deals in Bulgaria, though that never came to pass. As to the privatization agency itself, the paper points out that at this time it is not particularly effective and that its latest operational plan in 2016 indicates that the top companies due for denationalization were BDZ State Railways – Freight Services, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Plovdiv airport etc., which are still state-owned. The agency has no sales reports from last year and the documents available show that the country received revenues most of all from post privatization control.

Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov

English version: Milena Daynova