Opponents of Bulgaria sending military aid to Ukraine take matter to Constitutional Court
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and Vuzrazhdane lodged an application in the Constitutional Court on December 23 for the court to declare Parliament’s decision to supply military materiel to Ukraine unconstitutional, a statement by the BSP said.
Bulgaria’s Parliament approved the decision by a large majority, with only the BSP and Vuzrazhdane groups opposed.
The application to the Constitutional Court – signed by 26 MPs from Vuzrazhdane and 24 from the BSP, putting the total over the minimum threshold of the signatures of 48 MPs – followed President Roumen Radev not heeding an earlier call by the BSP to veto Parliament’s decision.
It was not immediately clear on what grounds the two parliamentary groups could claim Parliament’s decision to have been unconstitutional.
Bulgaria’s Defence Ministry said on December 23 that the logistical operation to supply arms to Ukraine was beginning.
Radev told reporters on December 23 that he repeatedly had called on MPs for “reason and a responsible position” on the subject.
“Unfortunately, the warmongers in the National Assembly made a decision for military aid to Ukraine by an overwhelming majority and obliged the caretaker government to concluded a contract with Ukraine for such assistance,” Radev said.
He said that a veto of the decision would have been “absolutely pointless”, because according to the regulations, a veto cannot result in a change to the provisions of an international treaty had already had been concluded.
Radev described a referral to the Constitutional Court of a ratified international treaty as “impossible”.
Speaking before the BSP announced that the court had been approached, Radev said: “While (BSP leader) Ms. (Kornelia) Ninova ponders whether to appeal to the Constitutional Court, which is an absolutely hopeless cause and will have absolutely no effect, the Ministry of Defense has done its job”.
He said that the Ministry of Defence has revised the contract imposed on it by Parliament, which revoked the right of the government to unilaterally conclude annexes to the agreement and all additional decisions must go through the National Assembly.
The contract as revised by the Ministry of Defence will be submitted to the National Assembly immediately after the New Year, the President’s office said.
“I hope that Mrs. Ninova will not betray the socialists and vote for the change in the treaty, according to which no government will be able to make a decision on military aid for Ukraine on its own, and this will only happen with the sanction of Parliament,” Radev said.
“This Ministry of Defence will categorically not provide aircraft, anti-aircraft missile complexes and tanks that could in some way harm our combat capabilities,” he said.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
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