site.btaParliament Rejects at First Reading Vazrazhdane’s Bill on Personal Insolvency

Parliament on Wednesday rejected at first reading a bill on personal insolvency submitted by members of the Vazrazhdane party.

It aimed to create a legal mechanism for the abolition of the "eternal debtor" status. Accordingly, this mechanism should offer a solution to the problem of bad credits through a fast, efficient, and cost-optimal procedure for the bankruptcy of natural persons, the motives of the petitioners stated.

During the re-vote, the bill was supported by 39 MPs (one from GERB-UDF, 27 from Vazrazhdane and 11 from MECh), 36 were against, and 106 abstained. In the first vote, 41 MPs were in favour, 28 of them from Vazrazhdane.

Kostadin Angelov (GERB-UDF) said that he voted in favour of this bill because he wanted to give a clear sign that his group supports the idea of such a bill, which is related to the transposition of a European directive. In his words, the main aim of the group that had tabled this item was to gain political advantage.

During the debate on the bill, the Continue Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) called on the sponsors to withdraw this item from the agenda and for the four bills on bankruptcy of individuals to be considered first in the legal committee. Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev also appealed for the bills to be considered as a package in the legal committee and then to have a long enough period between the first and second readings to get the best out of the four bills.