site.btaGERB Presents Constitutional Amendment Bill to Other Parliamentary Groups

GERB Presents Constitutional Amendment Bill to Other Parliamentary Groups

Sofia, May 15 (BTA) - The ruling GERB party on Friday handed out
copies of a bill to amend the Constitution to the other
parliamentary groups. Signatures in support of opening a
constitutional amendment procedure will be collected from the
MPs next week, GERB's Dimiter Lazarov said, noting that 60
signatures will be enough.

The proposed constitutional amendments concern the judicial
system. One of them is aimed to divide the Supreme Judicial
Council (SJC) into two colleges and to authorize the SJC Plenum
to deal with the judicial system budget and general affairs.
Another draft amendment seeks to abolish secret voting for the
election of magistrates.

Still another amendment, proposed by the Reformist Bloc, is
aimed to authorize the National Assembly to call the Prosecutor
General to hearings and enable the Assembly to consider other
reports in addition to the Prosecutor General's annual report.
Lazarov said there is no formal proposal about the possibilities
for removing the Prosecutor General from office.

He recalled that on Thursday GERB held a series of meetings with
the Reformist Bloc, the Patriotic Front and the ABV party. ABV
told GERB they need time to solicit opinions about whether the
proposed division of SJC into two colleges should be decided by
a Grand National Assembly (as opposed to a Regular National
Assembly).

GERB Floor Leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov said that the constitutional
changes should not be made emotionally and hastily. GERB counts
on dialogue, open-mindedness and pragmatism, Tsvetanov said.
Being the largest parliamentary group, GERB should make
proposals which can be accepted by the largest possible number
of MPs, he said. He noted that most parties favour the division
of SJC into a college of judges and a college of prosecutors.

The Reformist Bloc's proposal to limit the powers of the
prosecuting magistracy is unlikely to be approved, Tsvetanov
said. The Bloc's suggestion about the possibility of impeaching
the Prosecutor General also seems unacceptable at present, he
added. Reducing the number of seats in the 240-seat National
Assembly is a matter to be decided by a Grand National Assembly,
which cannot happen right now, Tsvetanov said.