The number of newly opened infringement proceedings by the European Commission (EC) against Bulgaria decreased in 2018, according to the annual report for applying European legislation. In 2018, a total of 18 new proceedings were initiated against Bulgaria, the lowest number since 2014, when they totalled 41. The infringement proceedings totalled 20 in 2015, 27 in 2016 and 26 in 2017. Last year, there was a total of 60 open proceedings against Bulgaria, half of which were in connection with the delayed introduction of European law into national legislation. Of the newly initiated proceedings, the most (four each) are related to taxation and customs, and migration and home affairs. There were three proceedings each in the spheres of domestic market, industry and entrepreneurship; justice and consumers; healthcare and food safety. There were two proceedings each in the spheres of transport, telecommunications, environment, financial stability and financial services.

Bulgaria’s National Assembly approved on July 4 the second reading of amendments to the 2019 Budget Act that cut the state subsidies for political parties and coalitions that got more than one per cent of the vote at the most recent election from 11 leva (about 5.5 euro) to one lev. This was the latest development in a saga that earlier saw a postponement of the second-reading vote to allow for consultations among the parties. The amendments will affect the third and fourth tranches of the state subsidies in the remainder of 2019. The law that the amount of the subsidy will be decided in the annual national Budget remains unchanged. The question of whether businesses and private individuals will be allowed to fund political parties remains open, and is likely to be addressed only when amendments to Bulgaria’s Political Parties Act are debated in the autumn.

Diners Club Bulgaria JSC will act as a payment institution with payment services under the Payment Services and Payment Systems Act (PSPSA), the central bank press office said. The company will have the right to execute credit transfers, including orders for periodic transfers. The supplementation of the license of Diners Club Bulgaria was voted by the Governing Council of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) after Diners Club Bulgaria had provided all the required information and documents and the conditions for supplementing the license under the PSPSA have been fulfilled. The company has also complied with the requirements of BNB Ordinance No 16 on Payment Services and Payment Systems, and Requirements to the Activity of Operators of Payment Systems with Settlement Finality.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company and Lavazza are discontinuing their cooperation, stopping the joint operations in all markets that the companies have partnered so far, including Bulgaria, and the termination of the joint operations will effectively come into force on 15 September. Since October 2017 Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company offers Lavazza coffee products, including coffee capsules, soluble coffee and cofee machines. Before that, distributor in Bulgaria was Sofstock, owned by the businessman Miroslav Pechev. His company is one of the major distributors of coffee, tea and alcohol. Pechev is owner of Park Hotel Vitosha in Studentski Grad district in Sofia and Grand Hotel Bulgaria since 2016, and recently – of the golf and spa complex St. Sofia Resort, popular as "the Bulgarian Las Vegas".

Spark Shared E-Mobility Service will be officially launched in Romania next week. According to the media, the company will offer a wide range of electric vehicles from July 10 in Bucharest. The Spark Shared Ecommerce Company is a joint project of Eldrive, a Bulgarian company specializing in building and managing the infrastructure of charging stations for electric vehicles, and Lithuanian company Ride Share, which offers an equivalent service for shared mobility with electric vehicles in Vilnius, Lithuania. In mid-June, the company added two premium-class cars to its portfolio in Bulgaria, and so the total number of Spark's electric vehicles is already over 200. The company's plans for entering the Romanian market were announced last year by Spark Executive Director Stefan Spasov.

Acronis, based in Singapore, opens 130 new engineering job positions in Sofia. They will be part of the expansion of the European Center for Research and Development in the capital. The investment for the project is BGN 1.2 million. The Center in Sofia started operating in August 2018 with areas of activity such as cyber defense, Artificial Intelligence and Вlосkсhаіn projects. Its expansion is related to the development of a new product called Acronis Тоtаl Рrоtесtіоn. It is for the relevant security threads that are used for the selected information. Acronis has announced its presence in Bulgaria with the acquisition of T-Soft in Sofia, now renamed to Acronis Bulgaria. The company started its work in Sofia with a team of 30 people. Almost a year later there are 120.

Supermarket chain operator Billa Bulgaria, part of Germany's REWE Group, has opened its 52nd store in Sofia and 128th in the country. Billa Bulgaria will continue opening new stores at the same pace, both through organic growth and acquisitions. The company's new store in Sofia offers a retail area of 599 sq.m. and employs 22 people. Earlier this year, the company said that it will invest over BGN 34 million in expansion and renovation of its network in 2019. Billa, which entered the Bulgarian market in 2000, operates stores in 38 cities across the country.

Qualcomm Inc., BMW AG, and Deutsche Telekom AG clinched a victory after European Union member states scrapped new rules mandating WiFi technology as the basis for how future connected cars talk to each other. The ruling is victory for 5G technology as countries around the world prepare for the roll-out of ultra-fast 5G wireless networks, which will power everything from self-driving cars to smart factories. The legislation -- first proposed in March by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive -- aimed to govern how future connected and automated cars in Europe send information between vehicles and infrastructure, in order to communicate about dangerous situations, road works, traffic lights and more. The companies had been urging EU legislators to veto it out of concern it would force them to make additional investments to fit a soon-to-be outdated technology, saying WiFi offers poorer performance than cellular-based technology compatible with future 5G networks.

American lawmakers are concerned that Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency may try to challenge the dollar and are demanding the company stand down. They want Facebook to immediately halt development of Libra until regulators have time to examine the plans and "take action," according to a letter sent Tuesday to the company by a group of lawmakers from the House Financial Services Committee. Chairwoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, first suggested a moratorium on development the day Libra was announced. The new letter represents an escalation of pressure on Facebook's digital currency plans, which have also been scrutinized by regulators around the world. Other interest groups have weighed in, too: More than 30 organizations sent a similar request to Facebook on Tuesday, saying US and foreign regulatory systems are not prepared to address questions about "national sovereignty, corporate power, consumer protection" and other issues raised by the project. The lawmakers said they want to hold public hearings on the "risks and benefits of cryptocurrency-based activities and explore legislative solutions." 

China's two giant state-owned shipbuilders finally confirmed a long-rumored megamerger. The tie-up will give them new scale to match Hyundai Heavy Industries' proposed acquisition of South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. "CSSC is planning a strategic restructuring with China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation Co., Ltd.," CSSC's publicly-listed arm wrote in a stock exchange filing. "It is determined that the plan also needs to be approved by the relevant authorities. In order to ensure timely and fair disclosure of information and safeguard the interests of investors, it is now announced." CSSC spun off CSIC in 1999, giving the newly-formed entity control of government-owned yards in northern China. CSIC's assets include Dalian Shipyard, Bohai Shipyard, Wuchang Shipyard and a wide variety of associated suppliers, manufacturers and research labs. It had annual sales in the range of $50 billion as of 2017. CSSC owns Shanghai Waigaoquiao Shipyard, one of the nation's most advanced shipbuilders, along with Jiangnan Shipyard and Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding. It took in about $30 billion in sales in 2017.