site.btaEconomy Ministry Joins Appeal against Suspension of Registration of Bulgarian Development Bank Changes

June 28 (BTA) - The Economy Ministry joined a formal appeal against the Sofia City Court's suspension of the entry of the new Supervisory Board and Management Board of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) into the Commercial Register and the Register of Non-Profit Legal Entities, the ministry's press office said on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the BDB lodged an appeal at the Sofia Appellate Court against the suspension of the registration of the new members of the two boards, describing the discontinuation of the process as "unlawful."

Two weeks ago, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) approved new BDB statutes, according to which the Supervisory Board and the Management Board may each be enlarged from three members to a maximum of seven. This means that newly appointed members should be registered despite complaints by older ones.

The contracts with those who were removed from the two boards have been terminated and they cannot tell BDB employees what to do, the Economy Ministry noted in its press release on Monday.

Last Friday, Economy Minister Kiril Petkov said on the Panorama weekly political talk show of Bulgarian National Television that the suspension of the new board members' registration is against the law because they have been approved by the BNB, Bulgaria's central bank.

The BDB is supposed to lend to small and medium-sized businesses. Shortly after he stepped in office as caretaker Economy Minister in early May, Petkov said he was shocked to find that eight companies had received a total of 946 million leva in loans from the BDB. He argued that was at odds with the BDB Act and the Bank's Statutes. In mid-June, the BNB approved three new executive directors at the BDB, whose registration was suspended on Friday. RI/VE