PRESIDENT PLEVNELIEV: BULGARIA’S PARLIAMENT TO BEGIN WORK ON 27TH OF OCTOBER

Bulgaria’s new Parliament, the 43^rd National Assembly, will hold its opening sitting on 27^th of October at 14.00, said President Rosen Plevneliev on 15^th of October, following a meeting with the parties which will be represented in the new Parliament. The Head of State said that once the new National Assembly was structured and the parliamentary groups were constituted, he would convene consultations and give the mandate to form a government. The forthcoming consultations will be held between him and each parliamentary group individually to discuss the work done by the caretaker government and the future priorities for the country and the new Parliament.

The President pointed out that 27^th of October was an important date and the most important of all tasks of the 43^rd National Assembly was to start work with well prepared solutions, rather than problems and misunderstandings. He also noted that there was a lot of preliminary work to be done – to reach consensus on the National Assembly’s leadership, to prepare the parliamentary rules and regulations, to make decisions on the committees and who would chair them.

Several priorities and urgent measures were discussed at the meeting with the President among which were: preparation and adoption of the revised budget for this year, preparation of the budget for 2015, ensuring the financial stability through solving the problem with the Corporate Commercial Bank, urgent transposition of some European Directives, including Deposit Guarantee Scheme Directive, some urgent measure in the energy sector.

The President also said that he undertook to send a report to all parties in the new Parliament containing up-to-date data and parameters on the implementation of the Budget for this year, to enable them to make decisions on the update to the budget. It was decided at the meeting to request “with joint efforts” more information from the Bulgarian National Bank on the Corporate Bank case in order to ensure a fair solution.

In his capacity of the Head of State, Rosen Plevneliev, raised the idea that the 43rd National Assembly should begin its work by adopting a statement of priorities, which should be initiated by the ruling majority. The President also called for a declaration of a broad political consensus for reforms, but said it was within the rights of the future ruling majority. The cost of these political reforms should be shared, he remarked.