site.btaPM Expects President to Issue Official Position on Government's Request for Appointment of National Security Agency Chair
Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said that while the President Rumen Radev has expressed his position on the appointment of the acting head of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), Denyo Denev, as holder of the position for a full tenure, he has done so only to the media and public sphere and not through a statement within the framework of the coordination procedure. Speaking during Parliament's Question Time on Friday, Zhelyazkov said that the Cabinet will wait for Radev's official statement "as an expression of will for institutional cooperation, rather than opposition and provocation of conflict."
On September 2, the Government asked Radev to decree the appointment. The President has already made it clear that he would not allowing Denev's promotion to the position of full-fledged SANS head. On August 30, as he commented the coordination procedure for appointing a new SANS chair, he said: "At the moment, politicians sanctioned for corruption by our strategic partners are carrying out a brutal purge at SANS and turning the agency into their own bludgeon. They are doing this through a nomination for which they want me to issue a decree. Let me be clear - it will not happen."
On Friday, Zhelyazkov said: "The current legal framework provides for the appointment of the SANS chair to be carried out in the context of shared competence between the Council of Ministers and the President of Bulgaria. In accordance with the principles of separation of powers and the rule of law, it is not possible to unilaterally impose the will of one institution over another. The legal procedure for appointing the chair of SANS requires that both bodies express the same will, which presupposes cooperation to achieve mutual agreement."
The Government is not responsible for the actions of another body, the Prime Minister pointed out.
The question to was asked by Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria MP Atanas Atanassov, who also asked whether the Cabinet could propose several candidates to present their concepts for managing the Agency, which would then be heard by the relevant parliamentary committee. However, according to the Prime Minister, this is not possible because it does not comply with the established regulatory framework.
As of June 4 this year, Plamen Tonchev was dismissed from his position as chair of the State Agency for National Security, and his deputy, Denyo Denev, was appointed as acting Chair.
/DS/
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