The Ministry of Finance will not pay for the vacant private truck parking lot in Ruse

The Ministry of Finance will not finance the purchase of the buffer parking lot in Ruse, which is located near the border. This became clear from a statement by the regional administration, published on Facebook. The new regional governor, Orlin Penkov, received confirmation of this from the Ministry of Finance.

This puts an end to Mayor Pencho Milkov’s ambitions to pay €10 million to the private company “Tir Parking Ruse” on the grounds of “strategic interest.”

So far there has been no official position from the Ministry of Finance on the matter.

According to Penkov the Ministry of Finance has stated that there is no justification for public and state interest to be guaranteed through the provision of funds from the state budget. They added that there are no guarantees for compliance with the legislation in the field of state aid.

At present the Municipality of Ruse has already established a building right on the property for a period of 30 years for which it receives annual payments of nearly BGN600 000. According to the contract after the expiry of the contractual period the Municipality will acquire ownership of all constructed facilities completely free of charge.

We would like to remind you that on February 3, the Municipal Council in Ruse approved the purchase with 34 votes in favor. Mayor Pencho Milkov justified his proposal with the need for full municipal control over the infrastructure, which is located in close proximity to the future Ruse-Veliko Tarnovo motorway and the planned intermodal terminal.

According to the mayor acquiring the property immediately rather than in 27 yr would allow the municipality to manage traffic more efficiently and generate direct revenue from tolls. In his words the deal would not burden the local budget as it relied entirely on targeted funds from the state. He has received assurances from the Ministry of Finance that the funds will be available.

This happened during the term of office of the then minister, Temenuzhka Petkova. Even then our team sent a question asking whether Milkov’s information was true and whether the ministry really intended to release the money. Our question remained unanswered.

The PP-DB and Vazrazhdane groups opposed the purchase. Their arguments focused on the changed market environment after Bulgaria’s entry into the Schengen area. According to the opposition councillors the reduced queues at the borders have made the facility less profitable, raising doubts that the deal is aimed at “rescuing” the private investor with public funds.

We would like to remind you that the project has been the subject of long-standing public interest due to media investigations linking the ownership of “Tir Parking Ruse” to the shady figure of Razmig Chakaryan – Ami. The Anti-Corruption Fund has also linked him to the operators of the Kapitan Andreevo parking lot and, until recently, to the phytosanitary control laboratory there. In 2024 the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) launched an investigation into the company for possible abuse of a dominant position, and it has not yet made the results public.

Translated with DeepL.