Legislative activity

During 2011 the 41st National Assembly has adopted 156 bills, 121 decisions and 2 declarations. The data appears on the summary report prepared by the parliament’s Press center and the Legal Affairs Directorate of the National Assembly.

Throughout the year the parliament has had 124 plenary sittings, including 7 extraordinary ones. Since the beginning of its mandate the 41st National Assembly has held 322 plenary sittings and has adopted 397 bills, 340 decisions and 6 addresses and declarations.

In 2011 at the National Assembly were submitted 233 draft bills, 120 of which tabled by the Council of Ministers. In the period between 14 July 2009 and 21 December 2011 at the parliament were submitted 642 draft bills, 437 draft decisions and 19 drafts addresses and declarations.

In the course of its 7th session the 41st National Assembly has passed 45 bills and 37 decisions. During this session dated 29 August - 21 December 2011 at the parliament were submitted a total of 67 draft bills, 44 among them tabled by the Council of Ministers and 28 draft decisions – 22 proposed by MPs. During its 7th session the 41st National Assembly has held 41 plenary sittings including 3 extraordinary ones.

Parliamentary control

In the year 2011 the National Assembly has consecrated 40 plenary sittings to parliamentary control. Ministers have answered deputies’ questions and inquiries in the course of 153 hours and 43 minutes.
In 2011 the number of questions amounted to 997 and of inquiries to 183. Written answers were given to 415 questions and to 14 inquiries. 582 questions and 169 inquiries received oral answer. Thus answered were 856 questions and 125 inquiries. 38 questions and 5 inquiries were withdrawn.

During 2011 the parliament debated on 4 inquiries. Two no-confidence votes against the government were rejected and one confidence vote was passed. The National Assembly has held 2 hearings in this period and the parliamentary committees 27. Reports on the hearings held by the committees were distributed to the MPs.
In 2011 the parliamentary group of the GERB political party has put forward 66 questions and 8 inquiries, the Coalition for Bulgaria – 526 questions and 125 inquiries, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms 44 questions and 5 inquiries, the parliamentary group of the Ataka party 115 questions and 14 inquiries, the Blue Coalition – 189 questions and 11 inquiries. The independent members of parliament addressed 40 questions and 19 inquiries.

In 2011 Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has answered 25 questions and 17 inquiries, Vice-Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov 83 questions and 12 inquiries, Vice-Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov 78 questions and 9 inquiries. Among cabinet members who have responded to the highest number of questions and inquiries stands the Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov – 112 questions and 9 inquiries, followed by the Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Naidenov  - 97 questions and questions and 22 inquiries, the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traycho Traykov – 86 questions and 11 inquiries. Rosen Plevneliev, in the capacity of Regional and Public Works Minister has answered in 2011 67 questions and 5 inquiries, while his successor Lilyana Pavlova 32 questions and 6 inquiries. The Labor and Social Policy Minister Totyu Mladenov 42 questions and 11 inquiries, the Defense Minister Anyu Angelov 17 questions and 2 inquiries, the Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov 22 questions and 3 inquiries, the Minister of Education, Youths and Sports Sergey Ignatov 45 questions and 3 inquiries. The Culture Minister Vegdi Rashidov had answered 46 questions and 5 inquiries, the Minister of Environment and Waters Nona Karadzhova 29 questions and 3 inquiries. The Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Ivailo Moskovski and his predecessor Alexander Tsvetkov have replied to 13 questions and 1 inquiry. The Minister of Physical Education and Sports Svilen Neikov had answered 8 questions, the minister in charge of the European Funds Management Tomislav Donchev  14 questions and 3 inquiries, the Justice Minister Margarita Popova 22 questions and 2 inquiries.

During the Seventh Session of the 41st National Assembly dated 29/08/2011 – 21/12/2011 parliamentary control was held at 13 plenary sittings for 39 hours and 51 minutes. 297 questions and 66 inquiries were raised during the same period. Debate on an inquiry and two plenary hearings took place, as well as 9 committee hearings with subsequent reports presented to the members of parliament. 213 questions and 34 inquiries received answers.

The distribution of questions and inquiries forwarded by parliamentary groups is as follows: the parliamentary group of political party GERB – 18 questions and 6 inquiries, the Coalition for Bulgaria parliamentary group – 168 questions and 40 inquiries, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms parliamentary group 14 questions and 1 inquiry, the Blue Coalition parliamentary group 49 questions and 5 inquiries. The parliamentary group of the Ataka party 31 questions and 4 inquiries, the independent MPs 15 questions and 9 inquiries.

Cabinet members addressed with the highest number of questions were: the Regional Development and Public Works Minister Lilyana Pavlova – 40; the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traycho Traykov – 39; the Minister of Agriculture and Foods Miroslav Naidenov – 33; the Vice- Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov – 29; the Vice- Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov – 27; the Labor and Social Policy Minister Totyu Mladenov – 25; the Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Ivailo Moskovski – 24; the Minister of Environment and Waters Nona Karadzhova -22 and the Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov – 20.

Among the most active deputies in raising questions during the Seventh Session stands MP Ivan Nikolaev Ivanov – 29 questions; Maya Manolova – 23; Kornelia Ninova – 19; Mihail Mikov – 17; Petar Korumbashev – 15; Yane Yanev- 13; Penko Atanasov – 12; Petar Dimitrov – 11; Rumen Petkov – 11; MPs Vanio Sharkov, Evgeniy Zhelev, Volen Siderov and Meglena Plugchieva have each forwarded 10 questions.

The summary shows also that since the beginning of the 41st National Assembly the total number of questions addressed to parliamentary members amounts to 2248 questions and 435 inquiries. Answered were 1993 questions and 331 inquiries. 

Cabinet members who tackled the greatest volume were the Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov – 165 questions and 29 inquiries; the Finance Minister Simeon Djankov – 188 questions and 27 inquiries, the Minister of Health Stefan Konstantinov – 141 questions and 10 inquiries, the Minster of Agriculture and Foods Miroslav Naidenov – 211 questions and 40 inquiries, the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traycho Traykov – 205 questions and 25 inquiries. Rosen Plevneliev, who was during the period Regional and Public Works Minister gave replies to 205 questions and 37 inquiries. The Minister of Environment and Waters Nona Karadzhova – 127 questions and 12 inquiries, the Labor and Social Policy Minister Totyu Mladenov –101 questions and 24 inquiries and finally the Minister of Education, Youths and Sports Sergey Ignatov to 99 questions and 12 inquiries.

According to the parliamentary statistics the biggest number of questions and inquiries put forward belongs to Ivan Nikolaev Ivanov /192 questions and 17 inquiries/, followed by Latchezar Toshev /99 questions and 10 inquiries/, Vanyo Sharkov /130 questions and 2 inquiries/, Kornelia Ninova/ 90 questions and 26 inquiries/, Maya Manolova/98 questions and 11 inquiries/, Yane Yanev/43 questions and 58 inquiries/.