site.btaPM Reserves Comment on Draft Legislation Stripping President of Powers to Appoint Heads of Three Special Services

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told journalists here on Friday that the proposed legislative amendments, stripping the President of the powers to appoint the heads of three special services, will be commented only after they go through the committee stage and a plenary debate in Parliament.

The draft amendments were moved by seven MPs of the government coalition: GERB-UDF, the Bulgarian Socialist Party-United Left and There Is Such a People, and were adopted on first reading by the National Assembly Internal Security and Public Order Committee on Thursday. According to these revisions, the chairpersons of the State Agency for National Security, the State Intelligence Agency and the State Agency Technical Operations are to be nominated by the Council of Ministers and elected by Parliament instead of being nominated by the Council of Ministers and appointed by presidential decree, as is the case now.

"Let's see the debate and its outcome and then discuss it in detail," the PM added.

He recalled that while the Kiril Petkov cabinet was in office, the Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria coalition proposed legislative amendments under which the heads of the special services were to be nominated by the prime minister and appointed by the Council of Ministers. "At that time, they initiated that change, and this should not be forgotten," Zhelyazkov emphasized.