May 9th, 2008

National assembly chairman Georgi Pirinski received on their demand parliamentary members Martin Dimitrov, Maria Kapon and Neno Dimov. They presented him with a copy of the submitted in parliament petition, signed by one third of the members of the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee, asking him to call a special meeting of the Committee to discuss the report of the joint Bill for amendment and supplement of the Duty Free Trade Act second reading.

With the petition, they insist the amendments suggested by the Council of Ministers draft to be adopted sooner, in order to implement the will of both government and parliament to shut down the duty free shops and gas stations. It was also stressed that in doing so Bulgaria will be released from criticism in the forthcoming European Commission Report on Bulgaria.

Chairman Pirinski engaged himself to approach the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee Chairman with the demand and to insert the Report on the agenda of next week’s plenary sittings.

In this connection the speaker of parliament addressed an official letter to the Finance and Budget Committee Chairman, proposing a special meeting to be held on May 15th, 2008, to debate the Report for the second reading of the joint Bill on amendment and supplement of the Duty Free Trade Act , so that the latter can be included in the agenda of the National assembly in the next few days.