site.btaBorissov: Joint Governance Council to Handle Personnel Appointments as from Tuesday

"These days the Joint Governance Council will be working hard, and after Tuesday it will already start handling personnel appointments," GERB leader Boyko Borissov told journalists in Parliament on Friday.

He expressed satisfaction at the results achieved by the regular cabinet formation negotiations and the fact that GERB managed to lead the process and put together a fifth government.

Under the coalition agreement between GERB-UDF, BSP-United Left and There Is Such a People, the Joint Governance Council (JGC) is a decision-making mechanism in the coalition. Each of the three coalition partners will have three representatives in the JGC, who may be party leaders, MPs or other designees of the entity concerned. The JGC meetings will be attended by two representatives of the Democracy, Rights and Freedoms (DRF) Parliamentary Group and by government ministers or experts in particular matters, subject to coordination among the partners. The JGC chairmanship will be held on a three months' rotating basis. The chairperson will be tasked with organizing the agenda, moderating the meetings and ensuring the implementation of the decisions adopted. The JGC will be meeting once every two weeks and will adopt decisions by consensus. If no consensus is reached, the matter may be deferred for further debate or a compromise proposal may be drafted. A veto will require a vote against by at least two parties to the agreement. Minutes will be taken at each meeting, recording the items on the agenda, the decisions adopted and the responsibilities of each partner. 

Raya Nazaryan specified that, as a rule, the JGC council will be meeting on Monday and Tuesday, ahead of the adoption of the National Assembly lawmaking programme. GERB-UDF will be represented on the Council by the deputy floor leaders, and Borissov will take part, too.

Nazaryan said that the Council will deal shortly with the allocation of parliamentary committees, and the opposition will probably get some, too.

In her words, a replacement of Nataliya Kiselova as National Assembly Chair does not need to be discussed at this point.