October 15, 2009



The National Assembly adopted on October 15, 2009, on first reading, amendments to the Ownership and Use of Agricultural Land Act, a bill introduced by the MPs of PG GERB Desislava Tanova, Stoyan Gyuzelev and Dimitar Avramov. The purpose of the bill is to improve the legal frame for agricultural land use allocation. The bill envisages that supervision of agreements on agricultural land use (i.e. rent or lease) will be entrusted in the future to a committee, appointed by the Director of the Regional Directorate for Agriculture and not by the mayor of the municipality, as it is currently. The membership of the committee will consist of the local authorities representatives of and those of the Regional Directorate for Agriculture.


Thus the oversight of land use contracts will be executed primarily with the participation of officials of the structures of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, explain the bill movers. They are motivated by the fact that the information about owners and users of agricultural land is kept in the municipal departments of agriculture, and thus creates big opportunity for making the right operational decisions in the allocation of land usage. The idea is also to fixe the deadlines for concluding the agreements, taking into account the agro-technical conditions.


The draft bill envisages to reestablish the right of the Regional Governor to issue legal titles for state ownership of built-up on state land properties and their adjacent lands, or of empty lands of former agricultural yards of closed agricultural organizations. These deeds of ownership are a requirement to conduct administrative procedures (through auction) for the transfer of public lands to other persons (legal or natural).
The return of the jurisdiction of the Regional Governors to issue acts of state ownership will create better opportunities for the redistribution of the now deserted properties.


The National Assembly approved on first reading amendments to the Interior Ministry Act, submitted by the Council of Ministers. 118 MPs voted in favor, against 31, while 20 deputies abstained. The bill proposition is to restore the Unit for Combating Organized Crime as a separate Directorate General within the Ministry. It also restores the post of Secretary General, a position currently hold by the Commissioner General.


The Interior Ministry experts, who prepared the changes in the law, offered the Director-General for Combating Organized Crime to become also Deputy Secretary General. Another part of the changes are related to the closure of the Ministry of Emergencies / MIS /. It is proposed to create two new units - Civil Defense Directorate and National System 112, as part of the Interior Ministry and to switch the disaster protection functions to the Interior Minister.


According to the changes, trade unions in the MI will be able to become members of international trade union organizations with similar functions and character and will be entitled to hold and spend more time for union meetings in and outside the premises of the police.


Another change regulates the establishment of Municipal Police units. The regional directorates and offices of the Ministry will perform methodological guidance and control over the units.


Parliament adopted at first reading amendments to the Electronic Communications Act. The Council of Ministers, which moved the draft, suggests not applying the law with regards to electronic communications pertaining to government bodies and their administrations concerning issues of national security as well as specific matters of the Council of Ministers.

The adopted bill stipulates that the Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology bears the executive power, to implement the state policy in the field of electronic communications and Information Society. The Minister is obliged to create conditions for ensuring the freedom and privacy of communications.


The National Assembly terminated the powers of Kalipten Alida as a member of the National Bureau for control of the special intelligence tools. The termination is at the request of Alida, who is from the quota of MRF. Parliament has decided to close the office, at first reading last week, and to transfer its duties to a parliamentary subcommittee. Second reading of the bill is pending.