Bulgarian PM Reshuffles Government
Bulgaria's parliament approved a small government reshuffle Wednesday prompted by the forced resignations last week of two ministers over perceived failures to speed up reforms.
Lawmakers backed Delyan Dobrev, previously deputy minister for economy, energy and tourism, to step up to the top post, and Desislava Atanasova, head of the parliamentary health committee, to lead the health ministry.
They replace Economy Minister Traicho Traikov and Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov who stepped down last week.
Dobrev, 33, a graduate of the London School of Economics and former employee of accountancy firm KPMG in Canada, now faces the key task of diversifying and liberalizing Bulgaria's Russia-dependent energy sector.
His other challenges include resolving the fate of a long-delayed Russian Bulgarian nuclear plant project and speeding up gas line projects to link Bulgaria's isolated network to those of Greece, Serbia and Turkey.
Atanasova, also 33, is the fourth minister to handle the health portfolio since Premier Boyko Borisov's government came to power in 2009, and will be tasked with hospital restructuring to improve health care and cut costs.
With a year until elections, political analyst Evgeniy Daynov predicted the government would just finish its term without serious reform efforts.
Source: Agence France Presse
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