"The National Assembly has fulfilled its commitment to the society to adopt the legislation necessitated by Bulgaria's EU membership," Georgi Pirinski said at his concluding meeting for 2006 with the journalists accredited to Parliament

On 18 December, National Assembly Chairman Georgi Pirinski gave his concluding news conference for 2006 to the journalists accredited to Parliament. In the course of the meeting, Pirinski also opened a photo exhibition titled "The 2006 parliamentary year through the eyes of press photographers". The exhibition presents a documentary-style vision of the parliamentarian life in 2006 - a crucial year for Bulgaria's EU membership.

In his statement to journalists, National Assembly Chairman said that during the past year the National Assembly fulfilled its commitment to the society, namely to adopt legislation giving impetus to the democratic political and economic development of the country, as well as to provide the legislation allowing Bulgaria to join the EU on January 1, 2007.

The National Assembly has worked ever more intensively, Pirinski said reporting on Parliament's performance in 2006.

Parliament held 142 plenary sittings, of which 25 working on an extended workday schedule. Until 15 December, the lawmakers adopted 198 laws, of which 115 related to this country's EU membership. Thirty-one of the laws were completely new.

"The harmonization of Bulgarian legislation with the European one is a complex task," Pirinski said and stressed the importance of the amendments to the Constitution. "The fourth constitutional amendments are under discussion now but there is no doubt of the basic trend of them - better functioning of the institutions of state," he underlined.

Yet, with all reservations the overall assessment of the work done by Parliament should be definitely positive, Pirinski concluded.