site.btaUPDATED Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria Defend Memorandum Proposal to GERB-UDF

Representatives of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Wednesday gave details on a memorandum setting the main goals of the government, which they proposed to their power-sharing partner GERB-UDF on Tuesday. 

CC co-leader Kiril Petkov told reporters in Parliament the memorandum was "not an ultimatum but an open position leading to agreement," which sets out key governance priorities for the next nine months concerning the regulators, judicial reform and the security services. He said CC-DB want to be in governance only if the reforms continue.

"The nation and the country's foreign partners expect Bulgaria to be governed by institutions which defend the public interest regardless of who runs the country," said Petkov.

Commenting on one of the key points of the memorandum - appointments to the regulators, where the CC-DB and GERB-UDF should have equal quotas, Petkov said what was meant was that the power-sharing partners would not nominate candidates with a strong political profile. He argued that equal quotes would ensure a level playing field and no one would have the right to veto. Also, citizens' nominations to the regulators and an integrity check are to be introduced.

Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Atanas Atanasov commented that after nine months of accusations that CC-DB had been in office with GERB without a coalition agreement, the memorandum was drawn up as an invitation to talks and a political offer of a kind. The point is to sit at the negotiating table before the rotation of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel in early March, and sort out the policies for at least the next nine months or, to quote the memorandum, every nine-month period until the end of this government's mandate. 

Atanasov said the document was sent to GERB's Gabriel on Tuesday because she and Denkov are the link between the two political forces making up the informal government coalition.

Nadezhda Yordanova MP of CC-DB said the memorandum on the continuation of reforms set ambitious goals and required an in-depth political dialogue in the  Bulgarians' interest. She told the Bulgarian National Television the document was not a red line or a threat of early elections, but a logical step.

The CC-DB parliamentary group decided that it was imperative to spell out the priorities and the decision-making mechanism and to have them approved by both partners in the informal government coalition. The memorandum does not cover all the elements of governance. It will be accompanied by governance and law-making programmes, which have largely been prepared by the Council of Ministers, she said.