Bulgaria

Bulgaria is last but one in the EU by government expenditure on education as a share of the GDP, according to Eurostat data for 2012.

Bulgarian Labor Minister Hasan Ademov has said that the relative share of the working poor in Bulgaria has amounted to 7-8% over the past few years, following EU statistics.

Ademov participated Friday in an international conference on the working poor held under the aegis of the European Works Council.

Germany's concern Siemens is to provide the electrical systems and control and measurement apparatus for the offshore section of the South Stream.

MPs approved changes to Bulgaria's Energy Law which allow for the South Stream pipeline project to go around EU legislation.

With the latest decision by Bulgarian lawmakers, the South Stream segment passing through the country is given the status of a gas grid interconnection.

Bulgarian journalists protested in front of the Interior Ministry's headquarters in Sofia, to show their solidarity for the arson attack on bTV's Genka Shikerova.

Shikerova's car was set alight on Tuesday night, parked in front of her home. This was the second such act against her, after her previous car was inflamed last September.

Bulgaria's Mimi Hristova won the bronze medal in the 55kg freestyle category at the European Wrestling Championships in Vantaa, Finland.

Hristova defeated France's Aurelie Basset in the small final, 6:4. This is Bulgaria's 4th bronze medal at these European Championships.

Oktay Enimehmedov, who attacked the honorary lifetime Chairman of DPS Ahmed Dogan in 2013, will seek to enter politics.

The 25-year-old who on January 19 last year pointed a gun at Dogan while he was delivering his resignation speech at a party conference, was firm he had taught the ethnic Turkish party's founder he was "not that intangible".

A number of cultural events and celebrations will mark the 135th anniversary of the proclamation of Sofia the capital of Bulgaria on 3 April, 1879.

Pictures from Macedonia's capital Skopje can be seen at the European Parliament's visitors center in a short film dedicated to Sofia.

The story presented by the film starts with the 1997 protests that rocked Bulgaria's capital and goes on with later years of transition to market economy in the country.

Offshore companies can not acquire and have ownership of agricultural land in Bulgaria, according to the latest amendments to the Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act.

The changes to the Agriculture Land Act were passed on second reading, Thursday, Bulgarian BTV reports. The restriction applies to joint-stock companies that have issued bearer shares, as well.