Bulgaria's Academy of Sciences (BAS) published on Monday a declaration against the reforms announced by the Bulgarian Minister of Education, Sergey Ignatov.

Last Wednesday Minister Ignatov announced his plans to deprive the Academy of its managerial functions and give rights to the separate academic institutions to allocate budget means.

The Academy's real estate property will also be state-run and publicly accessibly. At the moment BAS's property, a large part of which has been privately donated, has a special status and is managed by the Academy.

Minister Ignatov outlined the fact that reforms in BAS are part of the government's anti-crisis policy.

However, representatives of the Academy have stated in their Monday declaration that “it is cynical to refer to the closing down of the academy as an anti-crisis measure.”

According to the Minister's plans The number of the scientific institutes at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is going to be reduced to 40 from the current 69.

“The Ministry plans to make all property of BAS public state ownership, though most of it has been donated to the institution by private individuals. We believe that in a European Bulgaria this authoritative crush-down cannot be carried out the way it was performed in the Republic of Georgia. Similar encroachment upon the autonomy and the traditions of academic sciences in Bulgaria has never happened in the 140-year history of the Academy– not even during two national catastrophes, the change in political regimes or coups. Bulgaria will benefit nothing from the reforms and will suffer great damages,” state the Bulgarian scientists in their declaration to Minister Ignatov.

The scholars also express their fear that big corporations and certain individuals have pushed for the changes so that they could acquire ownership of BAS property.

They also point out that the draft has been prepared without the knowledge of the Bulgarian academic community and that plans to deprive BAS of its managerial functions is a blow at its autonomy and an attempt by the state to impose administrative dictatorship.

“None of the EU member states has undertaken similar authoritative measures which are reminiscent only of the dictatorship imposed on the Romanian Academy of Sciences by the Socialist dictator Chaushesku,” the declaration reads.

“All national scientific centers in Europe have been founded by the state. Yet BAS was established by the Bulgarian people during the Turkish dominion. Hence its existence should not be solely dependent on the whims of the government. The destiny of BAS should be decided by the Bulgarian people,” declare the Bulgarian scholars.

“Whoever wants to decide the fate of BAS should have the courage to put their decision to a referendum. BAS is not an administrative structure. It, together with the Sofia University, is one of Bulgaria's national identity symbols. If its wiped away, both Bulgaria's future and its past will be wiped away. We urge the Bulgarian president, the members of Parliament, the Bulgarian intelligentsia and all thinking people in Bulgaria to give us support and help us preserve BAS,” the scholars state.

Plans to change BAS include dividing the 40 remaining institutes into 9 thematic units with 8 of them now fully determined. The only one with a question mark so far is the future of the Liberal Arts where the reform met the strongest opposition.

Each unit will be led by a Consulting Scientific Counsel with a team of scientists from the sector from BAS and universities around the country, representatives of Ministries and State Institutions and European experts.

The 8 units are: 1. Information and Communications Sciences 2. Energy Resources and Effectiveness 3. New Materials and Technologies 4. Biomedicine and Quality of Life 5. Biodiversity, Bioresources and Ecology 6. Climate Changes, Risks and Natural Resources 7. Astronomy, Space Research and Technologies and 8. Social Sciences.

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