site.btaUPDATED President Meets Three Potential Caretaker PMs, Central Bank Governor Says It Is "Bad Idea" for BNB to Be Involved in Political Process

President Rumen Radev has already met three potential caretaker Prime Ministers: Parliament Chair Rossen Zhelyazkov, Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev and National Audit Office President Dimitar Glavchev. He met each of them separately after all three parties in Parliament he asked to form a government, declined the mandate: GERB-UDF, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria and There Is Such a People. 

No details were provided after the meetings and Dimitar Radev was the only one to comment for the press, saying that it is a bad idea to get the central bank involved in the political process.

The three are in a pool of office-holders among whom a caretaker Prime Minister will be chosen. The pool also includes the deputy governors of the central bank, Glavchev's deputy at the National Audit Office, the Ombudsman and their deputy.

It transpired Wednesday that Deputy Ombudsman Elena Cherneva - Markova had resigned as of March 27, which effectively removes her from the pool of potential caretaker PMs.

Dimitar Radev told reporters: "We had a productive conversation. The decision will be the President's to make. I shared my view which is that it is not a good idea to have the Bulgarian National Bank involved in the political process, at least for two groups of reasons. The first are purely substantive: it will cast a political shadow over the central bank and for a long period of time. After 2015 a healthy distance has been achieved between the central bank and the political process and forces. There is also a number of legal reasons. There is a collision with national law, which is obvious, but what is little talked about is the collision with European law. The central bank governor and his role are explicitly defined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, its protocols, the statute of the European Central Bank, the statute of the European System of Central Banks. They are very clear that these positions cannot be combined. I am a member of the General Council of the European Central Bank. The code of ethics there explicitly states that the governor should avoid any participation in the political process and also should not attempt to take public positions outside that of a governor." 

The Code of Conduct for the Members of the Governing Council says that, in accordance with Article 108 of the Treaty establishing the European Community and Article 7 of the Statute of the ESCB, "members of the Governing Council, when exercising the powers and carrying out the tasks and duties conferred upon them, shall not seek or take instructions from Community institutions or bodies, from any government of a Member State or from any other body, including any decision-making body that they belong to. The members of the Governing Council shall act in the general interest of the euro area. For decisions to be taken in accordance with Article 10.3 of the Statute of the ESCB, Governors may also take into account the interest of their respective national central bank as shareholder."