September 1, 2009


National Assembly President Tsetska Tsacheva presented at a press conference on September 1, 2009 the legislative program priorities of the parliament for the coming month and announced a new structure of the parliamentary administration. The press conference was attended also by the Chief Secretary of the National Assembly, Mr Ivan Slavchov.

There is a trend of higher rates of submission of bills in parliament during the first two months of the new government, said Ms Tsetska Tsacheva. She cited a reference, according to which nearly two months after the constitution of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, the Council of Ministers had not submitted to the National Assembly any draft laws.

The present National Assembly works at a satisfactory pace in comparison with the previous two terms, said the President of the National Assembly. Tsetska Tsacheva stressed that the quality of the bills submitted by the new government is high and they do not need a long work in the committees before their discussions in the plenary hall. She informed that the Council of Ministers had already moved in parliament Bills amending the Bulgarian Identity Documents Act, the Commercial Law and the Vocational Education and Training and Tourism Act, which are to be debated in September. There are several bills on amendment and supplement to existing laws, such as the Notaries and Notarial Activity Act, the Road Traffic Act, the Support of Farmers Act, the VAT Act, the Hunting and Game Protection Act, the Labor Code and the Cultural Heritage Act that were introduced at the initiative of deputies, in the period from August 3, 2009 until the end of the month.

The program of the National Assembly in September will include several draft resolutions that are deemed to be particularly important for the image of the work of parliament, said Tsetska Tsacheva. She noted that the draft resolutions envisage the creation of temporary committees of inquiry, the first to verify the expenditures, appointments and transactions made in the last year of the mandate of the government of Sergey Stanishev, a second one to verify the signals for distortion of the elections for National Assembly, held on July 5, 2009 and a resolution to appoint the Committee for auditing the annual financial statements of the Court of Auditors for 2008.

It is very likely that next week, the National Assembly will adopt on second reading the amending bill of the Road Traffic Act.

The Chairwoman of the National Assembly presented the new structure of the parliamentary administration. Tsetska Tsacheva noted that the administration must be modern, efficient and transparent, with high expertise and that this has been leading in the determination of the structure. The number of personnel was reduced from 585 to 495 employees, or the total cutback of the parliamentary administration amounts to 15 percent. This does not mean that in each of the structural units we were looking for a particular rate cuts, said Tsetska Tsacheva and reiterated that principle in determining the new structure was seeking people for the specific job, not opening of positions for specific people. She pointed out that most of the employees laid off have attained retirement age.


Assembly President noted that special emphasis in the new structure is placed on specialized administration, with leading position given to the Directorate for Legislative affairs and European law. The previous Information and Public Relations Department was elevated to the rank of Directorate in order to increase the capacity of the unit for public communication in three directions – dialogue and partnership with the media, parliamentary Internet communication and active interaction with civil society.


There is no tension and political purges in the administration of parliament, was clear Ms. Tsetska Tsacheva.