Society is tired of this merry-go-round of caretaker governments. If a regular government emerges, politically supported, that will be good news, and if it lasts a year or two - we can also talk about stabilization in the country. This was stated by the former Minister of Environment and Water Yulian Popov on bTV.
According to him, it's good that the negotiations are being held behind closed doors - otherwise they start being held on Facebook. There are problems that a government can and should solve. They can push the country forward.
As one of them, he highlighted the high politicization of the administration: “It is actually regulated by law. Heads of local, regional units cannot be political positions; a minister can fire or appoint. The regional governors cannot be appointed and fired like this - they do not carry out political activities.”
Bulgarian secondary education is catastrophic, he believes. “There is no party for which this is a priority.”
”The problem of water scarcity is a long-standing problem. I am moderately optimistic because finally this was the focus of politicians' attention. The problems have finally been identified. It is important to make a change in terms of investments in the water sector and not to rely on European funds, because the water sector relies on companies that manage it, and they have their own business model and can extract the funds for investments. We need good corporate water management”, he believes.
”The territory that will suffer from water scarcity will not increase, in my opinion. Bulgaria is poor in water resources, our main water resource is the Danube”, Popov added.
“The WFD for me is a bad, even wrong policy at the European level. There is some big money, it has to be somehow absorbed. However, to absorb it, big projects are needed. We were not ready with quality, completed projects. Part of the funds may fall victim to this unpreparedness. It is good that the formula is “money for reforms”. If we carry out the reforms, I would personally lose the money – we will receive much more investments and money than those from the EU”, said Yulian Popov.