Bulgaria to remove Bulgarian Posts from not-for-sale list

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Bulgaria's parliamentary economic committee has approved the first reading of the amendments to the country's privatisation law envisaging the removal of state-owned postal services operator Bulgarian Posts from the list of companies that cannot be privatised.

If passed, the move would not necessarily mean that the company would be sold, as the state may decide to seek a buyer only for a minority stake thus retaining its control over the operator, MPs from ruling party GERB said.

According to Bulgarian Socialist Party MP Kornelia Ninova, however, a potential privatisation of Bulgarian Posts would not guarantee protection for its employees, while other lawmakers and unions insisted that the post was broadly a social service, which should be owned by the state even if it was operating at a loss.

"We do not support the privatisation, we have called for pulling out the asset from the not-for-sale list," Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Purvan Roussinov said.

Furthermore, the draft bill does not envision the full sale of the company and neither provides a mandatory deadline for its privatisation, MPs from GERB said.