Uber files: Bulgarian lobbyist is ‘GERB ideologue’ linked to ‘House in Barcelona’

Rositsa Velkova of the FIPRA agency was tasked with lobbying for UBER with the Bulgarian authorities at the end of 2014, according to the international journalistic investigation The Uber Files. The mission proved unsuccessful, despite Velkova’s close relationship with the then ruling party GERB. She was one of the ideologues of the party at the time of its creation and is associated with the Hocheger scandal. In 2019, her name surfaced in the scandal “House in Barcelona”. Velkova told BRRD that she did not know Boyko Borisov personally and the activity in favor of UBER was entirely transparent and in accordance with ethical standards and norms.

Bulgaria is one of the targets of the lobbying campaign of UBER, a global taxi company that faces resistance in different countries from traditional taxi services and local regulators. The UBER files reveal lobbyists’ contacts and engagement for the benefit of the American company of leading European politicians. Among them are French President Emmanuel Macron and former EU telecoms commissioner Neelie Kroes, former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and others. They secretly helped Uber expand its operations and circumvent regulations.

The Uber files were shared with The Guardian by former top UBER lobbyist Mark McGahn. The British media shared 18.69 gigabytes of data with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ. It includes 40 media from 29 countries in the analysis of documents covering the period 2013 – 2017 and containing 124,000 records, 83,000 emails and 1,000 files. BRRD is the Bulgarian partner in the project.

Weak lobbying for UBER in Bulgaria

Mark McGahn is committed to the UBER campaign through Brussels-based lobbying company FIPRA. He was responsible for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the period 2014 – 2016. The Bulgarian branch of FIPRA is managed by Rositsa Velkova.

The first contact with FIPRA headquarters about the upcoming UBER campaign was in June 2014 with Nikos Statopoulos. As a priority task, he assigned Velkova’s team to prepare a detailed analysis of the business and regulatory environment in Bulgaria, giving as an example similar analyses for Israel and Ireland.

An important part of the plan is compiling lists of institutions, politicians, NGOs and opinion leaders that would be useful or harmful to UBER’s plans. The following diagram is a product of the work of FIPRA Bulgaria.

According to the scheme, the city of Sofia are more favorable targets for lobbying, and the representatives of the parliamentary forces are rather opposed to the liberalization of the taxi sector, with the exception of Miglena Kuneva.

The next notable contacts of Velkova and her colleague Romena Bhutanska with the headquarters in Brussels were in November, before the planned launch of the UBER service in Sofia on December 9, 2014.

After the launch of UBER in Sofia, the answer was not late and in early 2015 Velkova reported to the head office in Brussels about the first complaints by associations of taxi carriers to Sofia Municipality, which referred them to the Commission for Protection of Competition. It becomes clear that it has well-intentioned “points” in this important regulatory body.

“The head of the CPC, P. Nikolov, has experienced several left-wing and right-wing governments over the past 12 years. It is said that he is a close friend of Irena Krasteva, the mother of the influential politician Delyan Peevski from the MRF (Turkish Minority Party), “- explains Velkova the situation to her Brussels counterparts in an email sent on January 9, 2015.

She also said that there was a meeting with “our contacts in the CPC” who promised to “give advice” after discussing the situation with the boss Petko Nikolov. Contact names have not been specified.

At that time – mid-February 2015, the CPC had already requested information from UBER about their business model, pricing and model contract with a driver working with the company. After a discussion with the legal team, some of the information was provided, but as confidential.

By the end of February, the situation was getting worse. Velkova was informed of a CPC report that may be negative for UBER and lead to a financial penalty of BGN 100,000, but also to a referral to the Executive Agency “Automobile Administration”, which in turn can control UBER cars with the help of the police. FIPRA also received information from the prosecutor’s office that there was also a report against UBER.

“My conclusion is that having such competitors as the owners of the big taxi companies in Bulgaria automatically leads to big troubles,” Velkova analyzed.

“Even if we find a way for a constructive dialogue with the CPC or other public regulators that are rather friendly at the moment, competitors will attack either through the Prosecutor’s Office or through the Automobile Administration or through their MPs.”

As the only successful approach, Velkova recommends starting activities to change the legislation as soon as possible.

The Brussels response describes the steps to be taken in this crisis situation:

• seeking support from the organization Invest Bulgaria, which has previously been contacted.
• contact with the MP from the Reformist Bloc Borislav Milanov and Bogomil Nikolov from the Active Consumers Association with whom meetings were held earlier to seek support.
• to recommend individuals from the U.S. Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce with whom to make meetings and ask for support
• draw up a list of high-level officials responsible for investment and economic growth to meet as quickly as possible.

In the available correspondence in the Files Uber has information about meetings with officials such as Tsvetelin Tsvetanov, head of the Automobile Administration, but not with high-ranking politicians.

Gradually, the efforts of FIPRA Bulgaria and Velkova herself in favor of UBER are fading. The last conference on the topic for which data is available dates back to April 2, 2015 and involved Velkova, Romena Buanska, Mark McGahn and UBER footage from their legal team. A month later, Bulgaria adopted legislation against the services offered by the American company and so far it has no right to operate in the country.

Velkova: We lobbied without a contract. I do not know Borisov, Peevski and his mother.

“As far as I can remember, there was no contract with Uber, and the consulting work carried out for the plant was completely transparent and in accordance with Fipra’s ethical standards and code,” said Rositsa Velkova to a question sent to her e-mail.

Who is Rositsa Velkova?

The businesswoman Rositsa Velkova is best known for her role in the lobbying scandal “Hocheger”, but also as an expert of GERB, author of part of the party’s program. In a publication of p. “Theme” of February 26, 2009 she was identified as one of the “ideologists of Gerberism“, recalls Offnews. And according to a publication in Computerworld.bg. since July 6, 2009, Velkova has been the coordinator of the IT team of GERB, which has prepared the party’s strategy for information and communication technologies before the parliamentary elections in 2009.

In 2012, when the Hocheger scandal broke out again, Velkova marched through the media and explained that she actually had nothing to do with GERB. It is contradicted by videos of gatherings where she sits next to Tsvetan Tsvetanov. In more recent times, Velkova remains far from the attention of the media and is engaged in consultancy, judging by the subject of her companies “CISi Management Relations”, “Facility Planning”, etc. In her profile in the social network for professionals LinkedIn she presents herself as a graduate of the UNWE and the University of Vienna and owner of VMC – Vienna Management Consulting. With this company, she participated in the already liquidated Hocheger BG as a partner with Hocheger See Betailiguns Holding.

In March 2020, an investigation by BRRD found that Velkova through VBG Energy had bought the Spanish company Ema BGS S.L., owner of Borislava Yovcheva’s luxury boutique in Barcelona. This happened on March 12.

“I have good connections in Italy and I wanted to develop a fashion business” – this is how Rositsa Velkova explained to BRRD why she acquired the store of the luxury brand Ermanno Scervino in the Catalan capital.

It is strange that this desire of Velkova evaporated quickly. The very next day – Friday 13 March, Rositsa Velkova sold “VBG Energy” to Desislava Spasova. She is the wife of Svetoslav Spasov, known as a close adviser to Boyko Borisov and even his personal astrologer.

Since then, there has been no change in the ownership of Ema BGS S.L., which is suspected by Spanish investigators of large-scale money laundering in connection with the “House in Barcelona” scandal.

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