site.btaUPDATED President Vetoes State Agency for National Security Act Revisions

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has vetoed amendments to the State Agency for National Security Act, which empower Parliament to appoint or dismiss the State Agency for National Security (SANS) chairperson, the press secretariat of the head of state announced on Tuesday. The National Assembly will have to hold a further debate on the amending law it adopted at a first and second reading on October 2. 

According to the law as amended, the Chair of SANS is to be elected by the National Assembly on a proposal by the Council of Ministers. So far, the heads of SANS, the State Intelligence Agency and the State Agency Technical Operations were appointed by presidential decree. The amendments were supported by GERB-UDF, Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning, Bulgarian Socialist Party - United Left, There Is Such a People, and three independent MPs. Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, MECh, and Velichie opposed the changes, while the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms abstained.

In the reasons to his veto, Radev argues that the procedures for selection of the heads of key state bodies in charge of national security should ensure an objective assessment of the candidates' experience and accomplishments and should be immune to the greatest extent possible from changes in the political conjuncture. The Bulgarian legislation in force guarantees this by sharing the competence for appointing and releasing the most senior officials in the national security protection system between the head of State and the government and by apportioning clear political responsibility for these decisions, the President points out. In his opinion, the Act to Amend and Supplement the SANS Act "groundlessly comprpomises these guarantees and will lead to a repoliticization of the process."

The President recalls that Parliament was entrusted with electing and dismissing the SANS chair for the first time 12 years ago. On June 14, 2013, the very day when the the revisions to this effect were gazetted and entered into force, the National Assembly elected Delyan Peevski SANS Chair as the sole candidate for the office, nominated by Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski. This act of Parliament provoked citizen protests on an unprecedented scale in the country's contemporary history that ultimately led to the resignation of the Oresharski cabinet. On June 19, 2013, Parliament repealed its resolution appointing Peevski, and in early 2015 restored the President's power to appoint or release the SANS chair on a proposal by the Cabinet. The October 2, 2025 law amending the SANS Act "does not provide any guarantees whatsoever that Parliament will not act in a similar way in future," the head of State writes. 

He is convinced that the election and dismissal of the SANS Chair by the National Assembly spells a tangible risk of each change in the political conjecture to entail a change in the head of the Agency in breach of the principle of term limits.