Finance Minister: Inspections in "Billa" and OMV are not directed against the Austrian business, there are inspections in over 500 companies

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Assen Vassilev, said that the inspections in "Bila" and OMV were not directed against the Austrian business. The inspections in these two chains are in the framework of precautionary measures for the budget. According to him, checks are underway in more than 500 other companies.

"There is no pressure (by authorities on Austrian businesses in Bulgaria over Vienna's position to allow Bulgaria into Schengen only for air and sea travel) there are probably 500-600-700 companies in the country at the moment being checked. You took pictures in two Austrian ones and decided to read more than there is. Especially in all food chains, with the entry of the measures for collection, from 1 January, on the Bulgarian market, not only on the international movement of goods, there is an increased presence, in absolutely all food stores, as well as other establishments where there are goods with high fiscal risk, as well as in the manufacturers of such goods," he clarified.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that specific checks of goods are made on shipments from and to Austria at the external borders at the request of Vienna and there the checks themselves take longer, which has caused some tension.

"What we are doing as a different treatment for Austria, are the checks by the Customs Agency. All cargo from and to Austria goes through the full range of checks. Apart from being checked by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, the cargo from and to Austria goes through X-ray checks and if a problem is identified, a manual check of the cargo is carried out. This is at the request of the Austrian side for increased checks on cargo to and from Austria. This has created some tension at the border, because you know that the amount of X-ray scanners is limited, we have envisaged funds this year to get more X-ray scanners, but only at the external EU borders, so at Kapitan Andreevo border crossing at the moment, out of 10 lanes for lorries, we have X-ray machines in 2 of the lanes only. We need to secure X-ray scanners for all the others".

Vassilev also commented on whether he will be Deputy Prime Minister after the rotation of Prime Ministers. He said that Denkov and Gabriel will decide. As regards the rotation, he said that the leaders should have a say in any changes in the composition of the government.

"Forming a cabinet means that it has to get parliamentary support. For it to get parliamentary support, it means that the We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria and GERB-UDF MPs have to support the cabinet. This goes through discussions between the Prime Minister, who will lead this cabinet, who, of course, should be able to select a team, and it also goes through discussions with the parties from which parliamentary support is sought, as it happened last time.

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