GERB gets 30.77% of the votes in the European elections after 61% of the election votes processed. These are the interim results announced by the CEC at 7 a.m. today. BSP received 25.01% of the ballots, the MRF follows with 13.78%. According to the vote count, VMRO has 8.06%, Democratic Bulgaria - 6.90%. These are the five parties that, according to the interim data, will allocate the 17 MEPs for Bulgaria in the new European Parliament.

Bulgaria's economy is expected to grow further on a quarterly comparison basis in the second and the third quarter of 2019, mainly on the back of a rise in domestic demand, the central bank said. "At the same time, the increase in imports in line with the projected growth of domestic demand will boost the negative contribution of net exports to GDP growth from the end of 2018," the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in 2019 first-quarter economic review published. In 2018, Bulgaria’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed down to 3.1%, from 3.8% a year earlier. Growth accelerated to 0.8% quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2018, from 0.7% in the previous quarter, as gross fixed capital formation, net exports and government consumption contributed positively, whereas the contribution of private consumption was negative. According to flash data released by Bulgaria's statistical office NSI last week, the economy expanded by 3.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, after growing by 3.2% in the previous quarter. On a quarterly comparison basis, Bulgaria's GDP growth accelerated to 1.1% in the first quarter of 2019, from 0.8% in the fourth quarter of last year. BNB also said that annual inflation is expected to slow down in the second and the third quarter of 2019 from 2.4% in February.

Bulgaria's Capman Green Energy Fund will seek to raise up to BGN 23.4 million in a capital increase, in order to finance acquisitions of companies engaged in the construction or operation of renewable energy projects. Capman Green Energy Fund will offer 17,336,6301 new shares for subscription at a price of BGN 1.35 apiece. If the issue is fully subscribed, Capman Green Energy Fund will increase its capital to BGN 30.67 million from BGN 13.34 million. The capital increase will be considered successful if at least half of the offered shares are subscribed for and paid for. Capman Green Energy Fund shareholders will vote on the proposal at a general meeting scheduled for June 24. In December last year, Capman Green Energy Fund signed a deal to acquire 100% of Sevko Bulgaria from local diversified group Holding Nov Vek for an undisclosed price. At the time, Capman Green Energy Fund said it intends to build a solar park on property owned by Sevko Bulgaria in the town of Sevlievo, in northern Bulgaria. Subsequently, Sevko Bulgaria issued a BGN 25 million bond and said that it is planning to invest the proceeds in the development of renewable energy projects and the acquisition of new land plots suitable for construction of photovoltaic parks and biomass plants.

Bulgaria's Slantse Stara Zagora Tabac said that its shareholders have approved the company's plans to acquire a land plot of between six and eight hectares for up to BGN 12 million, where it intends to build a new plant for tobacco products. Slantse Stara Zagora Tabac intends to acquire the land plot within the next 18 months. The company is currently in the process of increasing its capital, seeking to raise up to BGN 17.82 million. The company's shares last traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange at a price of BGN 10.8 apiece. Slantse Stara Zagora Tabac is majority-owned by local diversified group Sila Holding, which owned 67.85% of the company at the end of 2018.

The procedure for selection of an investor for Belene NPP has begun, the ministry of energy announced. In June 2018, the National Assembly decided to deflate the project for a second nuclear power plant, which should be implemented on a market-based principle without concluding long-term electricity purchase contracts by NEC and providing state guarantees. The National Electric Company reserves the right to a blocking quota in the decision-making process by the general meeting of shareholders in the future project-company. Until now, Rosatom and China's National Nuclear Corporation have announced intentions to participate in the procedure. For potential suppliers of some equipment, the French Framatom and the American General Electric are being mentioned.

Bulgarian state-owned Electricity System Operator (ESO) has signed a BGN 33 million contract with local company Emu for the construction of a 43.5-kilometre 400 kV overhead transmission line. The section is part of a transmission line which will connect Maritsa Iztok 3 coal-fired power plant, in southeast Bulgaria, and the city of Burgas, on the country's Black Sea coast. The contract was signed on March 3. Two companies tabled bids in the public procurement procedure for awarding the contract. The project benefits from EU funding.

Bulgarian hydraulic equipment manufacturer M+S Hydraulic said that its consolidated net profit fell to BGN 4.5 million in the first quarter of 2019 from BGN 5.0 million in the same period of last year. M+S Hydraulic's total revenue decreased to BGN 30.3 million in the first three months of the year from BGN 32.6 million in the same period of 2018. Total expenses declined to BGN 25.2 million in the review period from BGN 27.0 million a year earlier, as expenses for materials fell to BGN 13.5 million from BGN 14.7 million. M+S Hydraulic is an affiliate of blue-chip diversified group Stara Planina Hold.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a snap general election after his leftist Syriza party suffered a severe beating in Sunday’s European and regional elections, Greek media reported. Preliminary results showed that Syriza has won only about 24 percent of the vote in the European Parliament election, while the opposition New Democracy party won 33 percent. Tsipras, who swept to power on an anti-austerity platform in 2015, admitted that the “outcome was not up to our expectations.” Earlier in the evening, ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis had called for a general election, saying that Greece is undergoing a wholesale changing of the order in European and regional polls that were held simultaneously on Sunday. Economic issues played a major role in the run-up to the elections. In his campaign, Mitsotakis had pledged to offer tax breaks to property owners and cut families financial slack. Some also speculated that Syriza had burned political capital with an agreement over the renaming of the Republic of North Macedonia last June. Panos Kammenos of the right-wing Independent Greeks tweeted that: “Syriza committed suicide over [the] Prespes” deal on the new name for Macedonia.

The Trump administration unveiled a $16 billion farm aid package to offset losses from a 10-month trade war with China and said payment rates to farmers would be determined by where they farm rather than what crops they grow. The package, the bulk of which will be spent on direct payments, surprised growers and traders who had expected to learn separate payment rates for soybeans, hogs, corn and other crops in the Department of Agriculture (USDA) briefing. Many farm groups welcomed the move, but called for a trade deal with China as soon as possible. Some Democrats have slammed the plan, calling it a ‘band-aid’ and said the county-based payment system could leave some farmers with reduced aid. Farmers, a key constituency that helped carry U.S. President Donald Trump to his 2016 electoral win, have been among the hardest hit from a trade dispute with China, once a destination for more than 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports. “The farmers have been attacked by China,” Trump said in a press conference about the aid package. “But the $16 billion of funds will ... make clear that no country has veto on America’s economic and national security,” he said.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology on the implementation of a centre for nuclear science and technology in Vietnam. The MoU was signed by the Rosatom General Director Alexey Likhachev and the Minister of Science and Technology of Vietnam Chu Ngoc Anh in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. "Russian and Vietnamese experts have already carried out a number of joint actions within the framework of this project, including the definition of preliminary requirements and the selection of the most suitable site for construction", Rosatom noted. "Taking into account the approval of the preliminary feasibility study of the project in November 2018, the signed Memorandum defines further steps for the construction of [the centre] in Vietnam." An intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Vietnam on the construction of the Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology (CNST) was signed in November 2011. Rosatom signed an agreement in June 2017 with Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology to establish CNST under the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute (VinAtom).