EU Directive Promotes Repairing Defective Goods Over Replacement
The European Union member states, represented by the Council, have approved a directive aimed at promoting repair over replacement for defective goods
On Monday, Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov vowed that Bulgaria would comply with EU minimum standards for keeping egg laying hens by April 2012.
He had to vow something, because in end-January, the European Commission launched infringement procedures against 13 EU member states, including Bulgaria, over their failure to implement EU legislation concerning the welfare of laying hens.
The compliance deadline Naydenov faces is end-May 2012.
Commenting on the introduction of the ban on "un-enriched" cages, the Agriculture Minister explained that the number of "unhappy" laying hens in Bulgaria was 500 000 out of a total of 3 million.
By April, the "unhappy" ones would all turn into "happy" ones, Naydenov proudly assured.
Naydenov's words were not a sudden whim; the "happy" qualifier came in circulation with the breaking of the news about the EC infringement proceedings.
Given Bulgaria's less than shiny record in animal rights protection, isn't the joke rather misplaced?
Is it not sick humor to call the birds' right to a floor space of less than the size of an A4 sheet of paper a state of "happiness"?
Is epidemic cynicism to be tolerated as a safe outlet during times of crises?
If so, how long will it take before we forget the real value of things, for instance animal welfare?
If we look at history, there are not many cases in which relations between Bulgaria and Russia at the state level were as bad as they are at the moment.
The term “Iron Curtain” was not coined by Winston Churchill, but it was he who turned it into one of the symbols of the latter part of the twentieth century by using it in his famous Fulton speech of 1946.
Hardly anything could be said in defense of the new government's ideological profile, which is quite blurry; at the same time much can be disputed about its future "pro-European" stance.
Look who is lurking again behind the corner – the tandem of Advent International and Deutsche Bank, respectively the buyer of the Bulgarian Telecom Company in 2004 and the advisor of the Bulgarian government in the sweetest deal of the past decade, seem t
We have seen many times this circus which is being played out during the entire week and it only shows one thing - there is no need of a caretaker government in Bulgaria.
You have certainly noticed how many times President Rosen Plevneliev used the phrase “a broad-minded person” referring to almost every member of his caretaker government.
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