Sofia

Bulgaria's "Mom" Brussels and its "Dad" Washington had warned Bulgaria to suspend its funding if it allows South Stream on its soil, Russian news agency RIA wrote on Friday.

Voting should be made compulsory as early as in 2015, the co-chair of nationalist coalition Patriotic Front has said.

Bulgaria's Economy Minister Bozhidar Lukarski announced on Sunday Sofia is still waiting for an official notice saying the South Stream project is over.

Lukarski told Darik Radio it was not yet clear how much the country would lose if the project is really scrapped. In his words, Russian President Vladimir Putin's estimate of EUR 400 B is "an ephemeral number".

An unprecedented mechanism to oversee the way Bulgaria is spending funds on its army's modernization, NATO sources claim, quoted by a daily newspaper.

The alliance is now considering to make sure that Sofia will reach interoperability of the armed forces with those of other NATO members, Sega quotes the sources as saying.

Neither a long-term gas transit contract nor a complete finance model could be found among the documents signed with Bulgaria on the South Stream project, the government says.

Its statement comes after Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was made familiar with the documents by Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova.

Russia's Ambassador to Bulgaria Yuriy Isakov has said the construction of South Stream was "a happy development" Bulgaria should have fought for.

"No-one offers gifts like that... [gifts] like South Stream," the website Dnevnik.bg quotes him as answering to a question during an official reception on Thursday evening.

Patriotic Front, a nationalist coalition supporting Bulgaria's minority government, will not withdraw its support for the cabinet.

The coalition will be granted two official positions in return and will be able to send a Deputy Defense Minister to the cabinet and also to have a Deputy Governor of Sofia.

The daily news bulletin delivered in Turkish by the Bulgarian National Television is to be rescheduled, an official from the governing coalition has said.

So far the cabinet has received no formal notification for Russia's decision to abandon the South Stream project, Bulgarian Deputy PM Tomislav Donchev has said.

Senior career diplomat Mithat Rende of Turkey has been elected as chair of the Executive Committee of the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Foreign Ministry has announced.

Ambassador Rende has been serving as the head of Turkey’s Permanent Delegation to the OECD since the summer of 2013.