site.btaContinue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria "Perplexed" by PM's Request for Mandate of Ukraine Security Cooperation Agreement, MP Iordanova Says

"We are perplexed by this letter, the procedure is quite clear," Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Co-floor Leader Nadejda Iordanova said here on Wednesday. She was referring to a request by caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev for an express mandate from Parliament for signing a Security Cooperation Agreement between Bulgaria and Ukraine. "When the Council of Ministers wishes the National Assembly to adopt a resolution or a ratification act, if this falls within its competence, the Council of Ministers must table a draft act of parliament. Such a proposal that the procedure requires has not reached the legislature," she commented.

"The National Assembly may not pass resolutions obliging the Council of Ministers to take any action," said CC-DB Deputy Floor Leader Bozhidar Bozhanov. In his words, his parliamentary group backs the signing of such an agreement but "the point is that the Council of Ministers is not supposed to request anything of the kind [from Parliament] because such signing is within its own powers." Iordanova said that the CC-DB Parliamentary Group has sent the Prime Minister an express letter arguing that this agreement must be signed.