June 16, 2010

The National Assembly elected on 16 June 2010 MP Stoyan Mavrodiev as Chairman of the Financial Supervision Commission.

The Parliament decided to postpone until 2012 the increase of the pension amount, received by the surviving spouse of a deceased pensioner /known also as “the widow’s allowance”/. The adopted at second reading amendments to the Social Security Code stipulate this amount to remain 20 per cent until the end of 2011. As of January 1, 2012 the supplement will be raised to 25 per cent and in 2013 to 30 per cent.

The amendments to the Social Security Act stipulate that until December 31, 2010 the employers will have to cover 70 per cent of their employee’s remuneration for the first 3 days of the sick leave, based on the average gross salary for the month in which the temporary disability occurred. The National Social Insurance Fund will step in from the 4th day on, covering the employee at 80 per cent.

As part of the anti-crisis measures of the Cabinet, the deputies reduced the number of calendar days from 75 to 30, for which the worker will be covered for temporary disability occurring within a month after the latter was terminated. This measure is to be temporary and should remain in effect until the end of 2010.

The amendments to the Foods Act, adopted at the same sitting, stipulate that food products containing higher than the European standard amounts of GMOs should explicitly state this fact in written on the packaging of the product, in capital letters having a different and contrasting to the rest of the text color. The size of the warning must be spread on at least 25% of the whole package.

The National Assembly passed amendments to the Extradition and European Arrest Warrant Act which allow its application in cases for which signals are received through the Schengen Information System.

The National Assembly adopted at first reading amendments to the Bulgarian Identity Documents Act. The amendments discontinue the existing ban to leave the country on people, ordered by court decisions to repay a monetary debt in large amounts to Bulgarian natural and legal or foreign persons.

The parliament approved the annual report of the Committee on Legal Affairs permanent Subcommittee for parliamentary oversight over the use of special intelligence techniques.The report shows that the requests for such use in 2009 were 10 019. Special intelligence techniques were used to collect information about 3462 people and provided material evidence in 1234 cases of court proceedings.

By December 30th of this year the appraisers licensed by the Privatization Agency should be listed in the Register of the Chamber of Independent Appraisers decided parliament, which adopted at second reading amendments to the Independent Appraisers Act.

The National Assembly voted dawn by 136 votes against 39 the President's veto on amendments to the Radio and Television Act.

The Parliament ratified the Convention on the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center, signed on December 9, 2009 in Bucharest.