site.bta Deputy PM Kuneva Deplores Shelving of Anti-Corruption Bill

Deputy PM Kuneva Deplores Shelving of Anti-Corruption Bill

Sofia, December 15 (BTA) - Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Meglena Kuneva deplored Thursday the decision of the legislature to shelve an anti-corruption bill her team had proposed and said if this does not change, her party will not back the formation of a new government. The bill dropped from the agenda of the parliamentary legal committee on Wednesday - and very possibly from the agenda of this Parliament, too.

Kuneva argued that this is the most important political bill for Bulgaria. She noted that while Bulgaria has an outgoing government, Parliament has plenty of time before the end of its tenure and must make itself useful.

The bill was submitted six months ago and the legislators have had ample time to propose improvements, she added.

The anti-corruption bill has topped the agenda of Kuneva and her Citizens for Bulgaria Movement (CfB) for quite some time.

Kuneva said that they will discuss the matter with the Patriotic Front again and if no agreement is reached to put the bill for debate at the committee on December 20, "it makes no sense to try forming a government in this Parliament".

On account of the failed debates on the bill on Wednesday, CfB said that the government's junior partner, the Patriotic Front, belong in "a coalition of corruption" together with the Socialists and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. CfB deputy Dimiter Delchev said that refusing to consider the bill "opened up an umbrella for corruption". "What we saw at the legal committee meeting yesterday was a coalition of corruption," he said.

Patriotic Front co-leader Valeri Simeonov angrily dismissed the criticism. "We can't support such a botchy piece of legislation. When Parliament has only 20 days [until recess], it is stupid to adopt important legislation in a haste. All the more so that GERB have submitted an identical bill and it will take more time than the expected life of this Parliament to debate it," Simeonov said.

Democrats for Strong Bulgaria leader Radan Kanev said that leaving the anti-corruption bill for "better days" is bad news. "The bill provides a good groundwork for more integrity in politics," he wrote on Facebook. He believes that the bill's imperfections could have been dealt with before the final vote and says that MP Grozdan Karadjov and himself have moved a number of suggestions for revisions which deepened even more the anti-corruption effect.

He says that the bill has nothing to do with his party's relations with Kuneva's CfB. "We walked out [of the Reformist Bloc] a year ago exactly because we knew that GERB and the Patriotic Front are not to be trusted with these issues," Kanev says.