Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Bulgaria budget up 300M leva in 2011

Bulgaria may team up with Turkey, Romania and Croatia in buyng modern jet fighters. “If the relevant authorities reach consensus we may share the new fighters and have common training bases for pilots and technical personnel,” PM Boyko Borisov commented. Yesterday, the PM arrived in the Black Sea city of Varna together with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen where they will attend the conference of the Alliance. Before the discussions started the two statesmen had a tete-a-tete for over one hour. During the meeting the NATO top official extended his thanks to Sofia for the Bulgarian participation in the NATO missions in Afghanistan and Libya. According to Rasmussen the NATO potential should be used more efficiently and interoperability of the member countries should be enhanced. He gave as an example of good cooperation the purchase of three C-17 by NATO countries that will be used jointly. He recommended that similar projects should be implemented in other spheres, too.    
PM Boyko Borissov pointed out that in spite of the crisis last year the government has allotted 300M leva more for the defense budget. In his words currently Bulgaria is working with Romania, Croatia and Turkey on joint projects.
Regarding the anti-missile shield PM Borissov stated categorically his support for dislocating elements of the system in Bulgaria. “Our only requirement is the system to protect the entire territory of Bulgaria. From that point on – in which countries what part and what elements to be dislocated depends entirely on NATO technical and strategic decisions,” PM Borissov underlined. 
PM Borissov appealed to NATO saying it should carefully consider Bulgaria's position regarding the situation in Libya. As of next week Sofia will take part in a contact group which takes political decisions connected with the military operation in Libya.
"My request is that the stand of Bulgaria's Foreign Minister be carefully listened to by the members of the contact group as Bulgaria has had the possibility to hold negotiations with Libya and know well part of the opposition in Libya which is presently in Benghazi," PM Borissov stated on the last day of the sitting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly held in the Black Sea city of Varna, northeastern Bulgaria.
PM Borissov expressed his regret that the actions against Gaddafi had come late pointing that Libya held Bulgarian medics as hostages for many years before the eyes of the international community.

Slovak Defense Minister Warns of Military Collapse Unless Funding Increases

Slovakia's defense minister, Lubomir Galko, recently warned that unless defense funding receives increased attention, the Slovak armed forces will begin to break down within a few years. Slovakia has underfunded its military for years, and with a year-old center-right government under Prime Minister Iveta Radicova implementing an austerity diet, the likelihood that an uptick in defense spending will be forthcoming is close to zero.
Successive Slovak governments have viewed defense funding as an afterthought, from the center-right Dzurinda government which promised to meet an annual level of 1.85 percent of GDP for defense under its Model 2015 (or Long-Term Development Plan 2015) defense modernization effort to the populist, leftist Fico government, which saw defense as an area to trim in favor of social welfare programs. The Model 2015 plan has since crawled to a standstill and the Slovak armed forces are now in a state of atrophy.
Defense Minister Galko informed the Slovak National Council (parliament) on March 24, 2011, that because of the limited level of funding they have received, the armed forces are now funded on an 86:14 personnel/modernization basis. That ratio, he warned, will widen to 90:10 in 2012 unless the slide of the defense budget is reversed.
Still, defense funding has slipped by nearly 10 percent in 2011, from EUR820 million last year to EUR740 million ($1.199 billion). Some 70 percent of the military equipment used by ground forces has reached the end of its operating life. If it is not modernized or replaced with new matériel, 90 percent of the ground forces' military equipment will be obsolescent by 2014. Moreover, in order to merely maintain the Slovak armed forces in the depleted shape they are in, Galko contends, the government would have to fund defense at a level of 1.56 percent of GDP - far below the 2 percent required of NATO Alliance members.