Bulgarian President Radev vetoes amendments to Renewable Energy Act

Bulgarian President Roumen Radev said on May 15 that he vetoed parts of the bill to amend the Renewable Energy Act, passed by the National Assembly earlier this month.

In his motives, Radev said that he welcomed Parliament’s intent of adopting updated EU rules, but argued that the bill did not correctly transpose the EU directive, both by failing to include all provisions of the directive and by adopting provisions that contradicted the directive.

Additionally, parts of the bill would bypass rules on public procurement and environmental protection, Radev said.

Bulgaria’s constitution grants the head of state a limited power of veto, through enabling the President to return legislation to the National Assembly for further discussion.

The National Assembly may overturn the President’s veto through a simple majority vote or accept the veto and review the vetoed clauses. Since taking office in January 2017, Radev made liberal use of the power and this was his 38th vetoed bill.

The National Assembly overturned the veto on all but eight occasions – seven times the veto was accepted by MPs and, in the other case, the government coalition at the time failed to muster the support needed to overturn it.

(Photo: president.bg)

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Alex Bivol

Alex Bivol is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Sofia Globe.