February 4 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
DNEVNIK
- Despite pushback from environmentalists, farmers and the opposition parties, Bulgaria’s Environment Ministry will not withdraw amendments that aim to ease the country's restrictive GMO legislation, Deputy Environment Minister Evdokia Maneva said.
- The deadline by which Bulgaria can lodge a claim with the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg for compensations from Greece over an ongoing blockade that has snarled cross-border traffic expires on Thursday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has advised the two parties to settle the matter between themselves so as to avoid lengthy litigation. Bulgaria will decide at a later stage whether to seek financial compensations directly from Greece, Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov said.
SEGA
- The European Commission may fine Bulgaria up to 1.5 billion levs over transactions authorised by the previous government in which national woodland stock was swapped for other assets. The fine for just 15 of the 47 woodland swaps is estimated at between 55 million euro and 126 million euro, depending on whether the parcels have already been commercially developed.
- The U.S. is liberalising visa requirements for Bulgarian citizens. As of Wednesday, all visas issued by the U.S. Embassy in Sofia will be valid for a period of 10 years.
MONITOR
- The net amount deposited by foreign lenders in Bulgaria's banking system totalled 309 million levs in December, raising their combined deposits in the country to 9.8 billion levs at the end of 2009.
STANDART
- Maritime shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare has won a competition to operate a new ferry line linking Bulgaria’s Black Sea port of Varna and the port of Kavkaz in Russia.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)