site.btaSocialist Party's National Council Supports Countercorruption Bill

Sofia, September 2 (BTA) - The National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) set up a Legal Council within itself at a plenary on Saturday, acting on a proposal by leader Kornelia Ninova. The Legal Council will be headed by Yanaki Stoilov and will be made up of 23 legal experts.

The National Council voted unanimously for the introduction of a Countercorruption Bill into Parliament after the remarks made on Saturday and at recent meetings with professionals and experts are incorporated.

Ninova said there were three conditions for drawing up a Countercorruption Bill with GERB: the Anti-corruption Agency should conduct investigations and collect evidence; it should deal with high-level corruption, not with administrative infractions; and the Agency's chairperson should be appointed by the President.

The BSP leader called for a separation of powers and mutual control, saying that the executive should not appoint the head of the Agency which will exercise control on it. "We are not making a law for one government and one President," said Ninova.

The powerholders are again suggesting an imitation fight against corruption, meant for the next European Commission report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, Ninova said, noting that the government proposed an Agency which will collect information but will not make investigations.

Ninova said: "Society expects an alternative to the present government, let this be the season of the BSP for Bulgaria alternative." She called the BSP's Countercorruption Bill "part of the battle against the parallel State."

The National Council discussed the BSP's priorities for the new political season: poverty alleviation and larger incomes. The means to this end are changes in education, an emphasis on the economy and production, and combating corruption.

National Council member Georgi Gergov commented that the BSP was yet to answer the question why it lost the March parliamentary elections. "Because GERB did not win the elections, we lost them," he said. The alternative is yet to be proved through legislation, said Gergov, noting that the Left proposed 14 bills none of which ticked the boxes of the BSP's programme. In his view, those bills are proposed more in the way of bickering rather than to address the nation's problems.

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Meeting with Ninova and the BSP's leadership on Friday, President Rumen Radev said that "it is of key importance to guarantee the independence of the future Anti-corruption Agency if it is to be effective and achieve results." Radev stressed the need of discussion and a broad consensus on establishing an effective anti-corruption model. He said he would accept to be involved in the appointment of the Agency's chairperson. However, this would require "guarantees that the anti-corruption model in Bulgaria will work and will be attuned to the public expectations for change and real actions," the President's press secretariat said. Radev expects the new legislation to ensure a comprehensive approach to the fight against corruption, including prevention as well as investigation and prosecution.