Bulgaria Plans All-Out Cuts in Diplomatic Missions

Politics » DIPLOMACY | July 13, 2010, Tuesday // 15:14
Bulgaria: Bulgaria Plans All-Out Cuts in Diplomatic Missions The spokesperson of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that there might be all-out cuts of the staff of the diplomatic missions abroad. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has insisted on proportionally reducing the staff of the diplomatic missions abroad on all levels as an anti-crisis measure.

The spokesperson of the ministry, Vesela Cherneva, stated Tuesday that there have been an imperative assignment for 15% cut of the expenses of the Foreign Ministry.

According to Cherneva, in order for this to happen, there is a possibility for reducing the diplomatic missions abroad and their staff. However, the ministry's request need to go through an inter-ministerial debate within the National Security Council of the Council of Ministers, which might happen as early as this week, in Cherneva's words.

The spokesperson explained that the Bulgarian diplomatic missions abroad consist of representatives of different organizations and ministries, adding that the permanent representation to the European Commission includes representatives of all the Bulgarian ministries.

“As for the classic embassies, they usually consist of representatives of the Defense Ministry, the Economy Ministry, the Culture Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and of course, the national security agencies,” Cherneva said.

The Bulgarian Defense Ministry has announced that in order to save money, it had to close down its diplomatic missions in Addis Ababa, Amman, Brussels, Kuwait, Madrid, Prague, Rome, Sarajevo, Tirana and Hanoi.

The staff from the missions in Berlin, Kiev, Belgrade, Moscow, Athens and Bucharest has been reduced, while the missions in Baku, Yerevan and Warsaw have been temporary suspended.

In an interview for the Bulgarian daily “24 Hours” in the end of May, the director of the National Intelligence Service (NRS), Kircho Kirov, said that the reduction of embassies will affect to a certain degree the work of NRS, “as long as our employees abroad are part of the missions”.

“There is no doubt that the economic crisis is affecting the budget of the ministry and I understand that. If there is a need of reduction of our missions in places where we have representatives, then we will need to look for other ways to keep our presence there,” Kirov said.

The Foreign Ministry's spokesperson did not announce all the details for the financial relations between the different institutions.

“The idea for the strategic plan is that the reduction of the staff abroad should affect proportionally all the people working there,” Cherneva said.

She added that the appointments of ambassadors in the regular rotation will probably be put off for the beginning of next year.

This year the mandates of about 30 ambassadors will expire. The ministry has announced that it is considering appointing temporary ambassadors for the diplomatic missions abroad or extending the current mandates with one year, in order to save more money.

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Tags: Foreign Ministry, embassy, Ambassadors, Vesela Cherneva

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