site.btaParties in Parliament Discuss Removing Figure of Prosecutor General Altogether

Parliamentary parties are considering the removal of the figure of the Prosecutor General. "There are voices, there are ideas for removing altogether the office of the Prosecutor General. There are other options as well, so the talks continue," Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria deputy floor leader Nadezhda Yordanova told reporters here Friday. She was among the MPs who attended a meeting of Justice Minister Atanas Slavov and MP Delyan Peevski (Movement for Rights and Freedoms, MRF). 

Yordanova said that her group had talks with MRF on Friday and with GERB before that, and that talks with the other parliamentary groups are due in the coming weeks "to see where they agree and disagree when it comes to changing the Constitution". She said that her group is trying to security a majority to revise the Constitution.

Under Article 155 of the Bulgarian Constitution, amending the Constitution requires a majority of three quarters of the votes of all 240 MPs (which is 180 MPs) in three ballots on three different days. A bill of constitutional amendments which receives less than three quarters but more than two-thirds of the votes of all MPs is eligible for reintroduction for a new vote after no less than two months and no more than five months. This time the revisions will need to be backed by a majority of two-thirds of the votes to pass.

Yordanova said that there is agreement that the institution of the Prosecutor General will be "thoroughly changed and it won't continue the exist". 

She said that they are not discussing a deal with GERB and MRF. "We are talking and discussing ideas, perfectly normal things."

Some parties, including the Socialists and GERB, want to see revisions in more parts of the Constitution - not just the part concerning the judicial power branch, said Yordanova. 

"The best scenario is to have a common bill of amendments. It remains to be seen whether we will get there," she said.

Delyan Peevski of MRF told reporters after meeting with the Justice Minister: "You saw that we adopted the mechanism for the accountability of the Prosecutor General and we also discussed with Mr [Hristo] Ivanov [of CC-DB] removing the institution of the Prosecutor General altogether, to not have it in the new Constitution. Now, this proposal - for removing the figure of the Prosecutor General, came from them [CC-DB]. We will consider it but we would rather accept it."

Peevski said that his party unveiled draft changes in the Constitution one-and-a-half years ago and that they have not seen the proposed changes of CC-DB but are looking forward to it. "We are seeking consensus," he said.