Milen Velchev Remains Bulgaria's Finance Minister

Politics | August 20, 2003, Wednesday // 00:00
Milen Velchev Remains Bulgaria's Finance Minister Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Milen Velchev would keep his post. The news came two weeks after he filed his resignation reportedly over fiscal policy row. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (novinite.com)

Bulgaria's Finance Minister Milen Velchev has withdrawn his resignation, the governmental press office announced on Tuesday. The move comes after he held consultations with the prime minister.

"We don't know when this happened. What matters is that now it is like the resignation has never been filed," governmental spokesman Dimitur Tsonev commented.

Late on August 6 Velchev handed in his resignation personally to Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg. The governmental head then announced he would not accept the surprise resignation immediately and would give it some thought.

As a main motive Velchev cited a lack of support for tough budgetary constraints and disagreements with MPs from the ruling coalition over his plan to crack down on customs fraud. The resigning minister also complained over the failure of the Bulgarian police to clear his name after it was stained in a ministers-link-to-mafia scandal.

In early May, an official of the Interior Ministry said he disposed of photos showing Velchev on the yacht of a Bulgarian contraband suspect in Monaco. The Interior Ministry later denied the existence of the pictures.

The news about the resignation of Finance Minister Milen Velchev triggered an immediate drop in the prices of Bulgaria's euro-denominated bonds. However, the prices rebounded on the news that the prime minister would not have Velchev go at once.

Milen Velchev is one of the young western-educated professionals that joined the Cabinet of Bulgaria's Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg. A former investment banker with Merrill Lynch, he was awarded Euromoney's Finance Minister of the Year in 2002.
MORE about Milen Velchev -Read Who Is Who in the For the Record Section

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