Bulgaria to Shift Budget Focus from Security to Education - Finance Minister

Bulgaria's government has been giving too much money for the security sector, and too little for, and that is bound to change in 2012, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov has promised.

"The major focus of the 2012 Budget Act will be the redistribution of funds from the security sector, which includes the Interior Ministry, the intelligence services, and the State National Security Agency DANS, towards science, education, and culture," Djankov pledged speaking for Nova TV Tuesday morning.

He reminded that Bulgaria paid about 4% of its GDP for security and defense, while the average EU figure for this sector is 1.5%.

"We are paying more for security than the other European states, and less for education and science, while it needs to be the other way around," Djankov commented.

The Finance Minister further said the National Revenue Agency had accelerated its work in the past two months, and was expected to reach its tax collecting targets by the end of 2011.

Djankov also confirmed that a team of the Finance Ministry is investigating if there is a cartel agreement between Bulgaria's three major mobile phone operators M-Tel, Globul, and Vivacom – that keeps high the prices of mobile phone conversations, and that any evidence found will be submitted to the Competition Protection Agency.