Our Scans · Sofia · Weekly Summary

• Top emerging destinations for 2025: The travel darlings of the year ahead will likely include Madeira, Portugal, and Sofia, Bulgaria, as more globetrotters seek off-the-beaten-path experiences. TravelPulse
• The LGBT community and supporters in Bulgaria often face verbal as well as physical threats and attack, including the 2021 targeting of an LGBT center in Sofia. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
• SOFIA Bulgaria agrees to pay pharmacists higher fees, avoiding protest threat. www.euractiv.com
• BIUST engineers will be joining the EnduroSat team in Sofia, Bulgaria, to complete satellite assembly and payload integration. Engineering News
• In addition to multiple types of long-range ammunition that Ukraine needs, Sofia could provide artillery and air-defense systems - possibly in conjunction with NATO pledges to reinforce Bulgaria's security and help modernize its 36,000-troop army. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
• The ban on grains will apply to exports to Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary, all of which, except for Sofia, are Ukraine's immediate neighbours. The Telegraph
• Create a Territorial hub for Circularity in Sofia, Bulgaria that will act as a one-stop shop, embracing business, academia, research and technology organisations, civil society, public authorities, NGOs, sectoral associations, and citizens active in the field of CDW. www.euractiv.com
• Rights activists predicted more cases being brought against Bulgaria at the European Court of Human Rights after the Supreme Court of Cassation in Sofia ruled on Monday that transgender people will no longer be eligible to change documents in accordance with their identity. Balkan Insight
• The eight satellite centres already established across the globe, will be followed by eight more in Bosnia, Herzegovina; Botswana, Rwanda, Namibia, Japan, and at the Sofia University in Bulgaria by the middle of 2023. Breaking Travel News
• One roughly analogous transportation corridor described by Uzbekistan's Investments and Foreign Trade Ministry envisions Tashkent being linked to Sofia in Bulgaria, via Istanbul, across a 5,150-kilometer, two-week route that takes in a crossing of the Caspian Sea. Eurasianet
• The 182-kilometer pipeline will provide a relief to Bulgaria, which has been struggling to secure gas supplies at affordable prices since the end of April, when Russia's Gazprom cut off deliveries over Sofia's refusal to pay in rubles. Saudigazette
• Bulgaria was the first country that Gazprom stopped supplying after Sofia refused to pay in roubles due to conversion risks. www.euractiv.com
• In Sofia, the new, more progressive government is raising hopes for progress in the fight against corruption, poverty and other severe problems Bulgaria is confronted with. The Berlin Spectator
• Bulgaria insisted on the need for proper constitutional protection for Bulgarians in North Macedonia and insisted that there would be no assumption that Sofia will recognize Macedonian as a separate language from Bulgarian. Politico
• Greece and Bulgaria are already deepening their ties: Sofia is building a nuclear power plant that will be connected to the Greek power grid. DW.COM
• Gazprom has announced that its gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria could resume as soon as Warsaw and Sofia agree to the requirements imposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's decree of March 31-namely, to pay for Russian gas in rubles not in euros (Kremlin. Jamestown
• Backed by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and DeepMind, SiteGround and $100 million from the Bulgarian government, a new institute will open up in Sofia, Bulgaria in September to advance state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence and computing at large through open research. Tech.eu
• $3.75M in financial support from Amazon Web Services (AWS), $3M from Google, $285,000 from DeepMind, $6.5M from SiteGround and $600K from Bulgarian entrepreneurs will help develop a world-leading research powerhouse in Sofia, Bulgaria. RealWire

Last updated: 26 June 2025