site.btaUPDATED Parliament Approves Legal Amendments on Caretaker PM Appointee

At an extraordinary plenary sitting on Tuesday, Bulgaria's National Assembly passed conclusively amendments to the Bulgarian National Bank Act, enabling a suspension of the credentials of a caretaker prime minister assigned to them in their pre-existing positions while serving as head of government and a resumption of their duties for the remainder of the term for which they have been elected. The bill was moved by GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. 

The final provisions to the amending law introduced identical revisions to the Bulgarian National Audit Act and the Ombudsman Act.

The recently revised Constitution empowers the President to choose a caretaker prime minister from among the National Assembly chair, the governor or one of the three deputy governors of the central bank, the president or one of the two vice presidents of the Bulgarian National Audit Office, and the ombudsman or his or her deputy. Before Tuesday's amendment, the three laws barred the officials concerned from holding any other salaried public office except teaching. To avoid incompatibility, they would have to resign in order to head a caretaker cabinet.

 Under the amended Bulgarian National Bank Act, if the central bank governor is appointed caretaker prime minister, he or she will designate a deputy governor to exercise his or her powers in his or her absence. If a deputy governor is appointed caretaker PM, the bank's Governing Council will designate a substitute as a stand-in. 

If appointed caretaker PM, the president of the Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO) will designate a vice president to exercise his or her powers. If a BNAO vice president is appointed caretaker PM, his powers will be taken over by the other vice president, designated by an order of the BNAO president.

Where the ombudsman is appointed caretaker prime minister, his or her powers will be exercised by the deputy ombudsman. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee voted, 13-3 with 3 abstentions, to adopt on second reading these draft amendments.

The final version of the revisions was moved by Legal Affairs Committee Chair Anna Alexandrova MP of GERB. In the earlier version, approved on first reading at both the committee and plenary stage, the caretaker PM appointee was to be able to take unpaid leave for the duration of their tenure.

Petar Petrov MP of Vazrazhdane argued that the rushed handling of the bill in the Committee and later in the full house is detrimental to legislation. 

Grozdan Karadzhov MP of There Is Such a People (TISP) commented that the amendments took a much better direction but their legal expression was quite inadequate.

During the plenary debate, TISP Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov said that the revisions were tabled at the last minute, without debate and directly to the Legal Affairs Committee. He moved for a different wording to the effect hat the person picked to become a caretaker prime minister may resume their previous position if their term in office is not expired. The motion was defeated.

Peter Petrov MP of Vazrazhdane argued that the powers of electable office-holders may not be suspended. "There is an attempt to make analogy with MPs, but it is a false analogy," he argued.

BSP for Bulgaria Floor Leader Korneliya Ninova said that something that had been wrong from the outset cannot be righted as proposed. "Piling up new mistakes on top of old ones via legislative changes undermines statehood. The central bank, the Constitutional Court, the National Audit Office and the Ombudsman were once stable institutions but they are not any more," she said.