site.btaParliament Opens New Session

Sofia, September 1 (BTA) - The five parliamentary groups read out declarations at the opening of Parliament's new session on Friday.

GERB

GERB Floor Leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov said the new session is of key importance in view of Bulgaria's EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2018. The National Assembly will play a very important role as it will host six events. "We state our resolve to participate in policies strengthening the integration processes in Europe. A poll showed that 75 per cent of Bulgarians approve this country's EU membership. Schengen and Eurozone accession and the lifting of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) remain our priorities," he said.

He stressed that it was on Bulgaria's insistence that the Western Balkans became one of the priorities of the EU Presidency Trio of Estonia, Bulgaria, Austria.

The new political season is opening to good news as the first half of the year saw economic growth of 3.6 per cent.

Tsvetanov said a Countercorruption Act must be adopted by the year's end. Penal policy will have to be updated through a new Penal Code. Modern migration legislation is also needed.

He stated that GERB will firmly counter any attempts to denigrate the state bodies for political purposes. "The opposition should realize that [spreading] fake news about the political opponent is not the way to win popular approval," he said.

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) for Bulgaria

BSP for Bulgaria Floor Leader Kornelia Ninova noted that the new session was opening on the eve of two important events: Bulgaria's EU Council Presidency and the drafting of the national budget for 2018. She pledged her group's support for the policies of Bulgaria's EU Presidency because this is in the national interest. "However, by the year's end we will set forth our views on important matters which will be subject to bilateral and multilateral talks," she said.

BSP for Bulgaria will propose an alternative budget for 2018, prompted by concern about illiteracy, poverty, and the nation's poor health - "all of them problems not just of the present but of the future of the nation".

The left-wing MPs will propose amendments to the Pre-school and School Education Act, which Ninova said had been adopted without analysis of the expected results. As a result, teachers had one month in the summer to review 256 new textbooks, and the fact that there are black-and-white textbooks for poor children and colour textbooks for rich children "is an example of cynicism, discrimination and deepening inequalities".

Small and medium-sized businesses have been driven to their knees; large companies get all the contracts, while small ones are subject to administrative and political racketeering, she said. "The inflow of EU funds will dry up in 2020 and we will have to act quickly to promote domestic production," said Ninova.

BSP for Bulgaria will propose a new Bulgarian Development Bank Bill to refocus it to SMEs. Ninova also stressed that her group sets a high priority on anti-corruption legislation.

United Patriots

Addressing the legislature on behalf of the United Patriots Parliamentary Group, its Floor Leader Volen Siderov thanked GERB for being fair and responsive to their proposals, and he also thanked the opposition which, in his words, was "wise and did not oppose out of spite at particularly important and responsible times." He sees this as an indication that Bulgarian society and political class have grown wiser.

Siderov cited the border fence against illegal migrants and the increase of the minimum pension as examples of constructive and effective thinking with a tangible result.

"It took just three months to see that the United Patriots are upright, loyal and responsible political partners," the Floor Leader said. "Reality proved wrong those who scared people that something terrible would happen [if the nationalists would share power], on the contrary, good things for Bulgaria happened," he argued.

Siderov insisted on acknowledgment of the coalition Government's achievements, citing the easing of administrative burden for companies.

Movement for Rights and Freedoms

"The Presidency of the EU Council requires a new vision and a new governance formula based on fundamental consensus," Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Floor Leader Mustafa Karadayi said, reading a declaration on behalf of his parliamentary group. "A return to normalcy in this country is an indispensable condition for success," he argued. In his opinion, successful addressing of matters important to Bulgaria requires that the country be governed on the basis of "common Euro-Atlantic-oriented values".

"The third edition of the Borissov Cabinet is evidently less successful than the previous two issues," Karadayi said. He sees a lack of coordination and of a clear strategy as an essential feature of the Government's first 100 days in office, which creates chaos in governance decisions. In his words, "the Government's governance programme lacks a clear vision of future development, it consists of a set of wishful declarations and measures which reveal an inability to achieve economic growth and social responsibility." "Instead of governing the country through working institutions and administration, we are witnessing activities typical of an amateur art club," the MRF leader commented. "This is not a way to run a country. Leave histrionics to the theatre," he urged the powerholders.

Karadayi insisted on tangible results for Bulgaria in defence of the national interest. "The powerholders' problems proliferate, while solutions recede," he pointed out. "Belene and Tsankov Kamuk, presented as problems, are intended to cover up the problems surrounding the National Palace of Culture, the corruption scandals and their incompetent tackling," he argued.

"On the threshold of the Presidency, Bulgaria does not have the right to drift away from European values," Karadayi stressed. In his opinion, "coalescing with extremists implies more populism and less democracy". "Abandoning the European model forebodes timelessness with dire consequences for Bulgaria," he warned.

According to the MRF leader, the new parliamentary session has a serious law-making agenda, and the last stage of preparations for the Presidency of the EU Council is forthcoming.

Volya

Volya calls on Parliament to focus on two essential things during the present session: improving people's living standards and curbing corruption, Plamen Hristov MP said in a statement on behalf of the Volya Parliamentary Group. "We will remain intransigent to all attempts to push through lobbyist laws or such detrimental to the people, and we will follow particularly closely the measures to assist small and medium-sized business, we will be especially active on the 2018 budget," he said.

Hristov stressed that nobody wants to listen any more to empty parliamentary talk and promises for the future. He cited statistics according to which a large part of the Bulgarian citizens cannot afford recreation away from home. "People don't have money to meet their staple needs, they have been barely surviving for years now, poverty is constantly present in the homes of a large part of the families," the Volya MP said. "Volya calls on you to suppress your party ego, to prioritize work for a high standard of living, for support of small and midsize business, for more investments, especially in the backward parts of the country," Hristov said.

"People ask themselves about the deficiencies in governance as a result of which things have stagnated for years and steadily change for the worse, there is no will and, quite often, there is no competence and empathy for people's concerns, there is corruption and lobbyist schemes," he said.

The representatives of the parliamentary groups greeted Muslims on the Feast of Eid al-Adha.