state administration

After 23 days of negotiations with future partners in government, Andrej Plenkovic, president of the leading centre-right party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, is due to be named prime minister-designate on Monday by the country's President.

The Council of Ministers appointed on Wednesday Rosen Zhelyazkov as the new chairman of the State Agency for Electronic Management for a period of five years.

The newly-created institution will carry out all projects related to the electronic services of all institutions.

Rosen Zhelyazkov was Secretary of Sofia Municipality and General Secretary of the Council of Ministers.

Albanian officials and members of parliament will soon have to fill and sign the questionnaire as part of efforts to implement the law that bans people with past convictions from holding public office.

Unemployment in Bulgaria was 10 percent in December of last year, data from the country's Employment Agency shows.

This is a 0.7% year-on-year decrease, but is also up 0.1% from the month before.

As of December, 328 921 were registered at the agency, 4861 people more than in November, but 22 130 less than in December of 2014.  

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov expressed hope on Tuesday that the growth of the Bulgarian economy in the new year will exceed the forecasted 2 % and will reach 4.5 %.

Media reports in Croatia have suggested that Oreskovic's government will focus on reforms of the public administration and the healthcare system, as well as on reducing the number of state agencies.

The Bulgarian government authorised on Wednesday Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova to conclude a contract with Microsoft for participation in the Government Security Programme.

The State Agency for National Security (DANS) was selected as main contact point for the programme, the press service of the government informs.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic will launch a second round of consultations on Monday with party leaders and individual MPs, in order to identify whether any of them have enough parliamentary support to win the mandate to form the country's next government.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic called the first session of the new parliament for Thursday despite the fact that no coalition has yet secured enough backing from MPs to form a government.

The first session will be run by the former chair of the parliament, Josip Leko, from the previous centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP-led government.

Talks on forming a potential new government in Croatia have yet to bear fruit after parliamentary elections on November 8 finished without a clear winner.

The governing centre-left coalition, led by the Social Democratic Party, SDP won 56 seats, while the opposition centre-right coalition, led by Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, won 59. There are 151 seats in total.