site.btaMPs to Hear Former Prime Ministers Borissov, Stanishev over Plovdiv Fair Ownership

A parliamentary ad hoc committee of inquiry requested from state institutions all relevant documents after entrepreneur Georgi Gergov took full control over the International Fair of Plovdiv as a result of actions of the central government and the local authorities in Plovdiv and Varna since 2016.  

MP Rumen Gechev of BSP for Bulgaria requested that the committee receive information about a Council of Ministers meeting on 2016 at which a decision was made to transfer BGN 43 million to the town hall in Varna, which is a shareholder.

The facts which should be elucidated include: a decision by the state in 2016 to transfer a 49.63% stake in the International Fair of Plovdiv to the municipalities of Plovdiv and Varna; the failure to fulfil a decision by the Varna Municipal Council to return the local stake to the state; the award of the Varna stake as a contribution to the Puldin Tourinvest company, which resulted in a complete takeover of the Plovdiv Fair.

The Plovdiv Fair traces its beginnings back to 1891. Nowadays, it is the largest fair complex in Southeastern Europe occupying a total area of 352,000 sq m and an exhibition area of 137,831 sq m, half of it indoors. The complex has 19 multifunctional exposition halls and an up-to-date congress centre with 13 conference and seminar rooms.