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Silvia Bakardzhieva, who was nominated for environment minister in the second draft cabinet of “There is such a people” on Tuesday, is not widely known. Her professional biography is mainly related to the state administration and the Ministry of Environment. The personal one – with marriage and joint business with the convicted for attempted theft, and already conditionally released Zhivomir Bakardzhiev.
Before “Dnevnik” Bakardzhieva, who is the first nominated eco-minister from Slavi Trifonov’s party (this post was missing when the previous draft cabinet was announced), said that she accepts her nomination as an assessment of her professional qualities and intends to live up to expectations.
Lawyer with a focus on the environment
According to her autobiography, presented on the LinkedIn platform, Silvia Bakardzhieva is a lawyer with a master’s degree from the University of National and World Economy and a postgraduate qualification in European Union law at Kings College (London).
The first position she described in the network was as an expert in the Directorate “Animal Health and Food Safety” in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food from 2008 – 2011 (the end of the Triple Coalition and the first cabinet “Borisov”) .
In the following years – intermittently – was part of the administration in the Ministry of Environment and Water. From 2011 to 2014 he was a legal expert in the Directorate for Coordination of European Union Affairs and International Cooperation. In 2014 he left for Brussels as part of the Bulgarian representation as Secretary of Climate and Environment. From October 2018 he returned to the Ministry of Ecology as a chief expert. Three months later, her contract was terminated and Bakardzhieva left for Brussels again, this time as a legal adviser on food safety to the European Commission.
A reference in the registers of legislative activity shows that she represented the Ministries of Food and Environment in the discussion of amendments to the Food Act (in 2010), on a bill for climate change mitigation (in 2013) and on ordinance on biofuels (in 2018)
The partnership with Zhivomir Bakardzhiev
During the “Borisov 3” cabinet – in January 2019, Silvia Bakardzhieva was appointed a legal expert in the General Directorate “Health and Food Safety” of the European Commission. According to her LinkedIn profile, she remained in office until August 2020. Publicly available sources show no trace of her work during this period.
Also, according to her on LinkedIn, in the last year Bakardzhieva has been a deputy manager and legal expert in “Organic Cert” EOOD, having left the company very recently – in July 2021. According to the Commercial Register, it is registered in Shumen with the main activity of certification of live or unprocessed agricultural products, processed agricultural products intended for food, wine, feed, seeds and planting material. and yeast. The company’s website states that it was accredited by the Bulgarian Accreditation Service on November 30, 2020 and registered by order of the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry of May 5, 2021.
Zhivomir Todorov Bakardzhiev is a partner in the company from its establishment in 2019 until January 2021, according to the Trade Register. The name matches that of member of the criminal group “Tourists”, sentenced in February 2020 by the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) to four years in prison effectively for attempted robbery in the house of a businessman in St. Vlas in 2012 The group was named so by the police, according to the practice of then-Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov. During the arrest, the police announced that Zhivomir Todorov was a former beret.
A check of “Dnevnik” showed that the unique civil number and the initials of Bakardzhieva’s partner coincide with those of a person who was in prison with the same sentence. A reference in the court’s information system for the case against the group of “Tourists” shows that in one of the orders by which various items of the convicts were returned, Silvia Bakardzhieva was mentioned as his wife. The document has a detailed list of items that “to return to JTB, his wife Silvia Z. Bakardzhieva or a person authorized by them …”.
A reference in the Property Register shows that the two are listed as parties to a contractual mortgage in 2012. The address of the apartment in Sofia coincides with the address at which Bakardzhieva later registered her sole proprietorship.
–Information in the Property Register, which shows that Silvia Bakardzhieva and Zhivomir Bakardzhiev are listed as parties to a contractual mortgage in 2012.
To help her husband
A publication in “24 Chasa” quotes Bakardzhieva’s relatives, according to whom the reason for giving up her successful career as a senior European official is personal. “Sylvia has lived in Brussels for a long time away from her family. In recent months, she has been helping her husband, who owns an organic farming company,” the paper said. Bakardzhiev also has his own trading company – “Bio Euro Trade”, which was also registered in 2019 and again in Shumen – in the village of Dragoevo, Veliki Preslav municipality.
Bakardzhiev went to prison on March 4, 2020 and was there until July 12 this year. Then the Sofia City Court, chaired by Rusi Alexiev, released him. It is clear from the court’s ruling that both the prosecutor and the prison representative were of the opinion that he had recovered and may not be in Kazichene Prison for the remaining year and five months. The court accepted that Bakardzhiev had served more than half of the sentence imposed on him, and that there was evidence that he had recovered, had not violated discipline, had worked and was rewarded.
A medical certificate was presented to the court, which established a disease in the musculoskeletal system, diagnosed when he was admitted to prison. He told the court:
“I sincerely regret the shame I have caused my family and what I have done. I would never again think of committing a premeditated crime and I would be grateful if you would give me the opportunity to continue my life, work and I look after my family, “says Bakardzhiev.
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Silvia Bakardzhieva told Dnevnik that she would refrain from commenting, but did not deny that Zhivomir Bakardzhiev was her husband. Asked whether her husband’s details would affect her candidacy for minister, she said:
For my professional qualities I must be judged by my achievements so far
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Silvia Bakardzhieva
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Asked when she was invited to be a minister, she replied: “Enough in time.” He clarified that he would not comment on the first draft cabinet of “There is such a people”, presented the day after the elections on July 11, in which he was not nominated for the post of Minister of Ecology.
Bakardzhieva said the invitation to become a minister came from “colleagues I have worked with over the years”, without specifying who they are. “I think the main actors are known,” Bakardzhieva said. According to her, they appreciated “my professional qualities and I intend to live up to my expectations.”
Transfer of the personal company on July 27
In November 2020, Bakardzhieva established the sole proprietorship limited liability company “De Jure Avis” for legal advice “in connection with the interpretation and application of European Union (EU) law and national legislation in the fields of climate, energy, environment, agriculture, health and consumers “. On July 27, 2021 – a week before her name was announced among the candidates for ministers, she transferred her share of BGN 1,000 and her responsibility to the manager of the company of Zdravko Tenchev Zdravkov. Correspondence data they still point to her email address, and her personal address is that of the company.
When he left Organic Cert in January 2021, Zhivomir Bakardzhiev transferred his shares to Nadka Dimcheva Zdravkova, who in June transferred them to Nelly Pavlova Borisova, who was the company’s founder together with Bakardzhiev.
It is not known whether Bakardzhieva is related to Zdravkovi, despite the same surnames and the coincidence with her father’s name. According to unconfirmed information, these are her parents.
* the article was corrected at 6:47 p.m.
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