On a happier footballing note..

WEST HAM are lining up a £6million bid for Mexico's highly-rated midfielder Efrain Juarez.

The 22-year-old, who can play in central midfield and at right-back, is keen on a switch to the Premier League.

West Ham officials are trying to keep the move under wraps, but boss Avram Grant is keen to wrap up a deal quickly.

Now the Hammers are hoping to finalise the switch in the next few weeks following Mexico's exit from the World Cup.

Meanwhile, the club has launched an ambitious £10m bid to sign prolific Nice striker Loic Remy, 23, a target for Arsenal.

PC News

BULGARIA, ROMANIA INK POLICE COOPERATION DEAL TO PROTECT TOURISTS

The Interior Ministries of Bulgaria and Romania have signed a cooperation agreement providing for the transfer of police officers from one country to the other.
The deal was signed Monday in the Romanian Danube town of Giurgiu by the Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Interior Kalin Georgiev and his Romanian counterpart Petre Toba. It was initially announced earlier in June.
The document provides for joint traffic police activities in the border regions and for joint patrolling to ensure the keeping of public order.
The major rationale for the Bulgarian-Romanian agreement is the large number of Romanian tourists visiting the Bulgarian Black Sea coast where some of them have been the victims of crimes such as car theft. According to the Bulgarian government data, about 1 million Romanian tourists visited Bulgaria in 2009.
Thus, the police cooperate deal will allow Romanian police officers to help their Bulgarian partners primarily with respect to cases whether Romanian visitors are involved. The document also provides an opportunity for sending Bulgarian policemen to Romania but the scale of such a measure will likely be much smaller because of the fewer Bulgarian visitors to Romania.

Russian News Part 2

A big rise of Russian investment in Bulgarian real estate along the Black Sea coast has been reported by private Bulgarian television channel bTV on June 25 2010.

About 100 000 Russians have purchased property along the Bulgarian coast. According to Yuri Salovyov, Russian general secretary to the Russian embassy in Varna, this means that more than 300 000 Russians regularly spend their holidays in the country, given that they normally arrive with their families.

"Multiply that by the amount of money invested in real estate itself, and the tax collected by the state, in addition to the fact that many Russians don't simply spend their holidays here, but they live here, and one can see the contribution to the Bulgarian economy," Salovyov said.

Russians generally tend to choose property along large resorts on the coast, or the Bulgarian mountains, but they also settle occasionally for a quiet, rural way of life in small villages, the report said.

"The great demand for real estate, which initially came from the UK and other English-speaking countries, is being steadily replaced by Russian-speakers," said municipal mayor Avren Todorov.

"Many Russians are seeking to buy single family homes facing the seafront or flats in the cities, as many of them have decided to outsource their business to Bulgaria and move here permanently," real estate agent Stefan Atanassov told the bTV.

Russian news

RUSSIAN REAL ESTATE OWNERS IN BULGARIA UNITE TO FORM OWN NGO

Russian owners of properties in Bulgaria have registered a non-governmental organization to protect their interests as a staggering number of Russians have acquired real estate in the country in recent years.
The new “Association of the Russian-Speaking Owners of Real Estate in Bulgaria” named “Alyosha” has been registered in the Black Sea city of Burgas but also has a branch in Varna, announced Thursday its Chair Alexander Anisimov.
Anisimov presented the new NGO together with the Russian Federation consul in Varna, Yury Solovyov, who said that even though there is no precise statistical information about the number of Russian property owners in Bulgaria but that they are estimated to be at least 300 000. Many of them own properties along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
A number of “the Russian-speaking” property owners are from other former Soviet Union republics such as Ukraine or Armenia.
Several days ago Russian Ambassador to Bulgaria, Yury Isakov said the Russian property investments in Bulgaria amounted to more than EUR 1 B.
According to the founders of the NGO of Russian-speaking property of owners in Bulgaria, its goal is to defend the property and social rights of its members and to assist them with various legal procedure when acquiring or selling Bulgarian real estate.
Its Chair Anisimov announced that five Russia citizens have already filed suits over problems with Bulgarian construction companies. The future owners made advance payment but did not receive their completed apartments within the deadline.
The NGO is going to help investigate whether the Russians have been defrauded or whether the construction companies went bankrupt. It is also starting to compile a list of unfair construction firms and of other providing high-quality services.
“Medical help is a huge issue for the Russians residing in Bulgaria. Most of them don’t know whom to turn to when they get sick,” Anisimov explained saying that the NGO will also employ two doctors which will work on call for its members.
At the same time, Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry has announced that the number of Russian tourists in Bulgaria is on the rise as the Bulgarian consular offices issued 10 000 more visas to Russians in the first have months of the year compared to same period of 2009.
The 100 000th Bulgarian tourist visa for a Russian citizen was issued on June 22. In comparison, in 2009 this number was not reached until July 13.

We did it !

Well my cynicism was too cynical !.Well done Defoe and a markedly improved side.There were still a few rough edges, but it was so much better.Now though the hard matches begin !.

Fingers Crossed

Well 17.00 EET is the witching hour for the English football team.Defeat by Slovenia is unthinkable and to salvage any national pride they must win convincingly.
I hope they win, it will be a pleasant surprise, but I cannot see any indication that these 11 players currently constitute a team.The addition of Joe Cole will probably help and Upson is a good addition to the team (my West Ham bias).They have, lately, shown more discipline than, for example, the absolutely shameful French side, and it appears that the so called crisis meeting seemed to offer direction.
One thing is for sure at 18.45 EET there will be one of two emotions: euphoria or despair.

Editors Note: My euphoria or despair will be in Stara Kushta (Old House) Bar in Obrochishte, where they have a wide screen tv and draught Kamenitza at 1.50lv a pint (0.64p).So if there are any readers in Albena out there, tired of paying 4lv for a pint, please feel free to join my good self and my partners in crime Mark the Builder and Golfer Steve.

007

BUCHAREST, Romania -- A court in Bucharest on Friday (June 18th) sentenced a Romanian and a Bulgarian to 12.5 years in prison each for passing classified information to Ukraine. Floricel Achim and Petar Marinov Zikolov were arrested in March 2009 in Bucharest on charges of having delivered confidential Romanian military files to a country that is not a member of NATO. According to the prosecution, between 2002 and 2008, Achim gave Zikolov "documents that might have threatened the security of Romania". Zikolov passed the documents to Ukrainian officials. Achim admitted to the charges saying he did it because he was in a grave financial situation

What a load of rubbish !

I sat through Englands 'performance' last night, if you can call it that, with mounting anger.The best paid footballers and manager in the world drawing to possibly the worst side in the World Cup.
I suppose the pre tournamnet hype of  'we are going to win the world cup' should of told you that ..er..we obviously weren't, but two crap performances, which should have been wins, tell you that something is seriously wrong with the England team.
I think that most of the nation are approaching the Slovenia game with dread !.

More tourists..

ISRAELI TOURISTS DESERT TURKEY FOR BULGARIA OVER GAZA CONFLICT
Israel will redirect 400 000 of its tourists from Turkey to Bulgaria, as a direct result from the flaring Gaza conflict, Israeli Social Minister announced Thursday.
“After the deterioration of our relations with Turkey, which was a main destination for about 400 000 of our tourists, naturally Bulgaria will be the best alternative for them,” Minister Isaac Herzog said at an official meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart, Totyu Mladenov.
Herzog called upon the Bulgarian government to make efforts to advertise the country in Israel.
“There are many retired people who go to spa resorts in Greece and Romania. The most natural thing for them would be to visit Bulgaria afterwards. Varna is a very popular tourist destination,” the Israel minister said and added many Israelis visit ski resorts as well.
Herzog met with his Bulgarian counterpart to discuss cooperation on social issues; Israel and Bulgaria are going to update a social issues convention they signed in 2009.
The two countries work together on integrating orphans and people with disabilities in the society, and on attracting NGOs that have experience in Israel for building nursing homes in Bulgaria.
The recent conflict at the Gaza strip, where Israeli commandos stormed an aid ship and killed 9 Turkish citizens, deteriorated the traditionally good relations between the two countries.

The smoking gun !

Why Bulgaria Is the Next Big Worry for the Eurozone

Views on BG
From MoneyWeek
By David Stevenson
Greece was the founder member of the 'Erode the euro' club. Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy have also been in from the start, although everyone pretended not to notice at the time.
There have since been mutterings about Belgium and even France. Last week there were jitters about Hungary. And now it's Bulgaria's turn.
Hang on, you say. Hungary and Bulgaria aren't even in the euro. Why should our continental cousins worry about them?
Well, there are plenty of reasons for the eurozone countries to worry about their neighbours to the east. Here's what's spooking them, and what it means for the euro...
Hungary and Bulgaria are worrying investors
Greece's troubles are almost old hat now for veteran eurozone watchers. That's because a whole string of other countries with dodgy finances is now giving the financial markets sleepless nights.
In a nutshell, investors who lent them money in happier days are worried they won't get their money back now that times are tougher.
That's bad enough for those with loads of cash tied up in the eurozone. But now those concerns are spreading beyond the single currency area, too.
There's always been an agenda to expand the eurozone. Several other countries were meant to join the single currency at some future stage, once they'd knocked their finances into shape. But even although these potential newcomers haven't yet met the EU criteria, they're still scaring the horses.
Last week, Hungary said it was facing a Greek-style debt crisis, as we mentioned in Monday's Money Morning. The Hungarian government later backtracked, saying things weren't so bad after all. But in the meantime the Hungarian forint plunged against the US dollar and sent shockwaves across other global markets.
Now Bulgaria is having its turn in the spotlight. Auditors from Eurostat – the EU's statistics office – are likely to be "parachuted in" to Bulgaria to cast a critical eye over the country's public sector accounts, says EU Economics and Monetary Commissioner Olli Rehn.
So what's going on? And why is this spooking the eurozone?
There are two main reasons.
Firstly, news that the EU's accountants have turned up on a country's doorstep can get the rumour mill working overtime. Ever since Greece admitted that Goldman Sachs had helped it fiddle its deficit numbers, everyone's on the alert for a repeat.
"The timing of Rehn's statement was unfortunate given the last week's focus on the veracity of historical budget data in Hungary, and comparisons made to Greece's chequered track record on the data quality front", says Timothy Ash at RBS. "The EC is eager to expose any potential skeletons in the fiscal cupboard, and Bulgaria seems to be next in line in this 'cleansing' process".
In other words, senior eurocrats want to make sure Bulgaria isn't cooking its books. And that's because of the second reason. There's a big debt problem in Bulgaria.
The irony is that government borrowing is fine. The annual budget deficit – how much the government is spending over and above what it receives in taxes – is forecast to be 'only' 3% this year. And the national debt – the government's total debt pile – is likely to be just 17% of GDP by the end of this year. That compares very favourably with the EU average of 80%, and well over 100% for Greece. So Bulgaria should be able to pay its interest bills for now.
The cause for concern lies elsewhere. Bulgaria has a total external debt/GDP ratio of around 108%. That means that as a group, Bulgarian citizens owe more than they produce each year.
And because Bulgaria's currency, the lev, is pegged to the euro, this creates a rather different problem to Hungary. As John Stepek explained on Monday, many European banks made euro loans to Hungarian homeowners. When the forint dives against the euro, payments shoot up and some borrowers can't service their debts.
In contrast, lenders to Bulgaria – including Hungarian banks, incidentally – have to cope with the same issue that eurozone countries such as Greece, Ireland and Spain are suffering.
Because Bulgaria is keeping the lev pegged to the euro, the country hasn't been able to devalue its way out of trouble. That means its exports simply haven't been able to compete on the world stage.
And that's "caused a brutal and extended recession", says Ash. Real GDP shrank by 5% in 2009, and fell a further 4% in the first quarter of 2010. Unemployment has doubled in the past year to just below 10%. The economy is likely to take a long time to turn around.
Even worse, Bulgaria's growth over the past four to five years has largely been driven by a credit-based property boom. That boom is over, leaving Bulgarians with lots of debts backed by properties which aren't worth what they paid for them. Throw in a weak economy and high unemployment, and the reality is that lots of those loans simply can't and won't be repaid.
Bulgaria's finance minister says he's not worried about the EU audit. And he has no reason to be. But European banks who've lent to the country's citizens should be worrying about the risks that all that external debt poses. It's yet another potential danger to their balance sheets. It's likely to require more asset write-downs. And they've plenty of dodgy debt in their own countries to sort out without having to fret about the likes of Bulgaria.
Add it all up, and it's yet another nail in the euro's coffin. Because if European banks suffer another crisis, their governments will be under pressure to bail them out again. That means even heavier public sector debts, weaker economies and possibly even money printing, which in turn means a weaker currency.

Cheap Holiday Deals in Bulgaria

These deals are for Sunny Beach for Varna and Northern Bulgaria e mail or comment here.

Varna Fest is here !

Check this out !, our wonderful Varna Fest which began with two nights of Riverdance !.Click the post title !.

Pound soars against Lev/Euro

2.36 leva to the pound is the pretty impressive latest set of figures from the currency markets.Remember a few months ago it was nearly 2lv to the pound.This means that tourist money will stretch further this year, but not as far as the dizzy heights of 2.94lv which was the pounds high point.

Property of the Month for May 2010

Here is a real bargain.A recently renovated three bed house with a 1000m2 of land, a garage, off street parking for three cars and an inground swimming pool.Not only that but it comes with a detached shop on the main street of the very popular village of  Obrochishte just 4km from the Black Sea resort of Albena and 35km from the airport.This house has been refurbished to a high standard, and all for just 75,000 Euros.Please click on the post title for this and further offers.

Ryanair

It has been announced that Ryanair will fly to Plovdiv from September.This is for the ski trade but the lower airport taxes are attracting the low cost airlines.

House of the Month June 2010

This is my websites house of the month for June.Three bedrooms all en suite with balconies, 234m of built space, a 700m2 garden, lovely forest views,BBQ,parking for two cars and space for a pool, and only 20 minutes from Varna and the airport.All for only 110,000 Euros or 93,000 Pounds.Click on the post title for more offers.

Flight News

WIZZ AIR TO LAUNCH FLIGHTS FROM BULGARIA'S PLOVDIV

The biggest low-cost air company in Bulgaria is considering launching flights to and from the country's second largest city of Plovdiv.
At a special news conference Tuesday, the management of Wizz Air Bulgaria announced the registration of its newest aircraft Airbus A-320, which will be the company's third plane with Bulgarian registration.
The low-cost operator also confirmed the news about the launch of four new routes from Sofia including flights from the Bulgarian capital to Paris, Frankfurt, Bologna, and Madrid. Wizz Air's first Sofia-Bologna flight was launched on Saturday, May 22, with a promotional price of the tickets of EUR 33.99.
Kristian Krastev, Wizz Air executive manager for Bulgaria, has announced that the company will plan 45 new jobs in the country. Wizz Air Bulgaria expects over 700 000 passengers in 2010. Last year Wizz Air carried more than 590,000 passengers to and from Bulgaria, marking a whopping 76% rise over the previous year.
“We will continue to invest in Bulgaria because we feel safe here. Our company plans to start shortly flights to and from Plovdiv. The potential of the Plovdiv Airport is yet to be utilized, it will undergo dynamic development,” Krastev said.
Wizz Air is the biggest low-cost air company in Central and Eastern Europe. The company plans to add more flights to its schedule from Sofia to Eindhoven and Valencia, which will be serviced three and four times a week respectively.
The low-cost company currently holds 11% of the Bulgarian aviation market, preceded only by the national carrier Bulgaria Air.
It plans to service a total of 10 million passengers across Europe in 2010, compared with 7,8 million in 2009, which marked a 33% rise over 2008.

Uncle's Comment: The operative word here is 'considering' actually doing is a different thing.Second point is where are the flights from/to Plovdiv coming from.Plovdiv is mainly used for charter flights to get to Pamporovo for skiing.In the summer there is not much demand but maybe this will open up this part of Bulgaria to tourism and maybe the housing market.Plovdiv itself is an interesting city with some nice architecture.

Football Crazy

Bulgaria Tax Officials Happy with Top Footballers Probe

Domestic
Bulgaria's National Revenue Agency have checked the property and bank deposits of more than 70 top flight football players for suspected tax evasion and claim the probe is yielding results.
“There is not a single highly paid player, who declare the minimum salary of BGN 220,” Krassimir Stefanov, head of the Revenue Agency, said on Friday. “Some of them even declare incomes as high as BGN 50,000 per month.”
The garrulous wives of Bulgarian footballers, who are more than happy to talk about the luxurious life they lead, are believed to have prompted government officials to investigate top soccer players for suspected tax evasion at the end of last year.
The tax officials were impressed by the players' wives TV appearances, in which they don't miss to brag about the expensive cars of their husbands and all the possessions they have.
The National Revenue Agency announced a total of 261 Bulgarian top flight football players are under scrutiny for suspected tax evasion.
The action is a follow-up to previous checks of players and top flight clubs that revealed millions of levs of unpaid taxes and social securities.

Weather or not !

I dont know what',s up with our weathermen and women but the forecasts lately appear to be 100% wrong !.Today is supposed to be 21C and sunshine, it's now cold and dark clouds gather.The forecast has been wrong all week.I think the next time they tell me its going to be cold and raining I shall put on my bermuda shorts and hawaiian shirt !.

Mnogo Cigare !

BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT ABOLISHES FULL SMOKING BAN

The Bulgarian Parliament passed Tuesday, at second read, the more liberal rules for smoking in public spaces and abolished for good the full smoking ban.
The smoking ban was voted by the previous Parliament and was supposed to become effective on June 1, but the current Members of the Parliament approved the amendments of the Health Care Act, proposed by the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party.
Smoking will now be allowed in separate smoking spaces inside restaurants, bars, coffee shops, railroad stations, airports, ports, and bus stations. In restaurants with less than 50 square meters, the owner is to decide it the establishment will be smoking or non-smoking. In office buildings, employers have the right to designate special smoking spaces. In nigh clubs smoking will be allowed without the requirement to have separate non-smoking places.
The Opposition accused GERB of lobbing and human rights violation.
Only 85 MPs were present for the vote with 65 voting for the abolishment of the full smoking ban and 20 against.

Uncle's Comment: Some of this is quite good.A complete smoking ban simply forces out the smokers and they really need to be accommodated in smoking zones.However they idea of smoking and non smoking tables is just plain stupid, passive smoking is a major problem and this current practice does nothing to address it.