Information newsletter
Issue 3(15), March 2005

News, news, news
Prepared by Diana Bancheva, AIP

“Crown Agents” case still in court
The five-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court will consider for the second time the validity of the classification of the contract between the Bulgarian government and the UK company “Crown Agents.”
In the autumn of 2004, a three-member panel ruled that the contract was confidential information. The decision of the court was postscripted by the chairman of the panel, Elenkov, who stated that the contract was not secret. The court will deliver its final decision in a month.

The criminality reports of the Prosecutor’s Office—inaccessible
The journalist Hristo Hristov from “Dnevnik” newspaper will fight for his right of access to the reports of the Prosecutor’s Office for the last three years in the court. During the autumn of 2004, the journalist asked the Supreme Judicial Council to give him copies of the reports. The supreme magistrates decided that the information could not be disclosed to society since the documents had no significance of their own. Five-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court will decide on the case in a month.

Case proceedings for transparency of the construction project of “Liulin” highway
Environmentalists requested access to the documents related to the financial details of the project for the construction of “Liulin” highway under the ISPA program. The NGO “For the Earth” asked the Ministry of Finance to provide a copy of the cost-benefit report, as well as a copy of the project application itself. The latter contains the plan for the construction activities.
Representatives of the Ministry of Finance insist that the requested information is published on its web site. However, the so-called Financial Memorandum is the only document published on the Internet. It gives only general information.
The Sofia City Court heard the case at a first session on 16 March 2005. The court proceedings for transparency are just beginning.

Documents, related to the murder of George Markov, are still secret
The director of the National Investigation Services, General Kircho Kirov, denied access to key documents related to the murder of the writer George Markov. The refusal came at the request of the journalist Hristo Hristov, who has been investigating the case for years.
On 1 April, the Sofia City Court postponed the hearing of the complaint of the journalist Hristo Hristov from “Dnevnik” newspaper against the refusal of the director of the National Investigation Services. The term of secrecy had been expired long ago, according to the provisions of the Protection of Classified Information Act. Consequently, the information is public and should be transferred to the national Archive.

Are the activities around the construction of the Nuclear Plant “Belene” legal?
According to the lawyers of Access to Information Programme, the legality of all activities on the construction of the Nuclear Plant “Belene” is questionable. The Supreme Administrative Court has not decided yet on the complaint of environmentalists who appealed the decision of the Council of Ministers to launch the construction of the nuclear power plant. This decision came before the adoption of the report by the Minister of Energy and Energy Resources which is a violation of the legal procedure established for that decision-making process. Despite the ongoing court proceedings, a contract for architect-engineer was signed with “Parsons” at the beginning of 2005. The law prescribes that all construction activities should be put to a halt while the case is in the court, AIP experts remind the state.

The allocation of agricultural funds—transparent in UK, secret in Bulgaria
The Queen of England, Elizabeth II and Prince Charles had received over a million pounds farm subsidy from the EU. The figures became public after a FOI request submitted by “Guardian.” As a result of the request, the British government published information about all subsidized farmers in the UK. The information showed that the major landowners receive the largest. Seventeen farmers and agricultural enterprises received more than one million ponds each last year in help from the taxpayer.
More than two years ago, AIP submitted a similar information request about the allocation of the SAPARD funds to the State Agricultural Fund. No answer followed. A complaint against the mute refusal was filed in the Sofia City Court.