site.btaUPDATED Parliament Nominates Members of Fiscal Council, GERB-UDF Propose Simeon Djankov for Chair

GERB-UDF's Parliamentary Group nominated former Finance Minister Simeon Djankov for the position of Fiscal Council chairman, it transpired from information published on Parliament's website.

GERB - UDF also nominated Djankov as Fiscal Council member, together with Desislava Zheleva Kalcheva and Lyubomir Vasilev Datsov.

The Parliamentary Group of There Is Such a People nominated Atanas Atanasov, BSP-United Left’s candidate is Bogomil Manov, and Democracy, Rights and Freedoms nominated Erdoan Ahmedov.

The Fiscal Council is responsible for the independent monitoring and analysis of the budgetary framework with a view to maintaining sustainable public finances and improving the quality of official macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts by making an impartial assessment based on objective criteria, as well as increasing transparency and public awareness of the country's fiscal management.

In mid-February, the National Assembly approved the procedural rules for the election of the chairman and four members of the Fiscal Council. According to the adopted texts, proposals for candidates had to be made by the parliamentary groups to the Budget and Finance Committee through the Chair of the National Assembly within seven days of the adoption of the rules - a deadline that expired Thursday.

The candidate receiving more than half of the votes of the Members present shall be deemed elected. If more than half of the votes cast by the MPs present are in favour of several candidates for the same office, the candidate receiving the highest number of votes in favour shall be elected. Where none of the candidates obtains the necessary votes or there are vacancies, a second ballot shall be held in which up to two candidates for the office concerned who obtained the highest number of votes in favour shall take part. If, in the second ballot, none of the candidates for the office concerned obtains the necessary votes, the National Assembly shall adopt a decision to open a new election procedure.