The Ministry of Youth and Sports supports the updating of the List of Events of Major Public Importance and is ready to assist in identifying the sports events that can be included in it. This is clear from an official response from the Ministry of Youth and Sports toVolleyweek.bg.
The position of the sports ministry comes after a journalistic inquiry fromVolleyweek.bg, sent in connection with the procedure initiated by the Council for Electronic Media for updating the list, which has not been changed since its adoption in 2011.
In our inquiry, we posed eight specific questions, including whether the matches of the Bulgarian national volleyball teams – men and women – at world and European championships should be designated as events of major public importance, whether this should also apply to their matches in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), and whether the Ministry of Youth and Sports would specifically propose their inclusion in the updated list.

Ministry of Youth and Sports confirmed: We received the letter from CEM

The Ministry of Youth and Sports confirms toVolleyweek.bgthat the letter from the media regulator has been received:
"The Ministry of Youth and Sports has received a letter from the Council for Electronic Media regarding the initiated procedure for updating the List of Events of Major Public Importance under Art. 32, para. 3 of the Radio and Television Act."
However, the Ministry of Youth and Sports does not specify the date on which the letter was received, although this was one of the specific questions fromVolleyweek.bg.

The sports ministry supports the update

The Ministry unequivocally states that it supports the initiated procedure:
"The Ministry of Youth and Sports supports the updating of the list and expresses its readiness to assist in identifying sports events that could be designated as events of major public importance."
The response confirms the sports ministry's readiness to participate in the procedure, but does not specify which particular sports events, in its opinion, should receive such status.

No specific answer for VNL, world and European championships

This is where the main question ofVolleyweek.bg, related to volleyball, remains unanswered.
We explicitly asked the MMS whether the matches of the Bulgarian national teams – men and women – at world and European championships represent events of major public importance and should be explicitly included in the updated list.
Separately, we asked the same question about the Volleyball Nations League (VNL).
We also asked whether the Ministry would specifically propose the inclusion of Bulgaria's matches from the VNL, so that broad access of the Bulgarian audience to their television broadcast would be protected.
In the received response, the MMS does not express a specific position on any of these issues.
The Ministry also does not indicate whether it intends to hold consultations with licensed sports federations, including the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation – a question that was also raised byVolleyweek.bg.

The criteria are yet to be discussed

The MMS draws attention to the upcoming procedure and the competence of the CEM:
"According to the Radio and Television Act, the Council for Electronic Media is the competent authority that adopts and publishes the List of Events of Major Public Importance."
According to the response from the Ministry of Sports, within the framework of the open procedure, the criteria for determining events of major public importance, specific proposals, and subsequent actions for updating the list are yet to be discussed.
Thus, at present, the MMS officially supports the updating of the list and declares its readiness to assist in determining the sports events that can be included in it.
However, there is no specific position in the Ministry's response toVolleyweek.bgregarding whether Bulgaria's matches in the VNL, world and European volleyball championships should be among them.