Bulgarian President Radev vetoes amendments to State Agency for National Security Act
Bulgarian President Roumen Radev said on October 14 that he vetoed the bill to amend the State Agency for National Security (SANS) Act, passed by the National Assembly earlier this month.
The bill, which was passed by Parliament with the votes on first and second reading happening on the same day, changes the procedure for appointing the head of SANS.
Until now, the head of the agency was proposed by the Cabinet to the head of state, who approved the appointment by decree. Now the agency chief will be elected by the National Assembly on the proposal of the government, and the presidential decree is no longer required.
The bill is one of several passed by the current ruling majority aimed at curtailing the president’s role in the appointment of heads of security agencies.
In his motives, Radev said that having the National Assembly appoint the head of SANS would politicise the process, as it did in 2013, when the appointment of Delyan Peevski to the position resulted in large months-long protests against the Plamen Oresharski administration, despite Parliament’s quick decision to cancel the appointment.
Radev challenged the claims made by the bill’s proponents, namely that the change will guarantee stability and predictability, saying that the National Assembly often fails to make appointments on time, leaving incumbents in office past the expiration of their terms.
Additionally, Radev pointed out that while the bill made some changes to the law on the functioning of the national security apparatus (which is separate from the SANS Act), it did not remove a provision that still maintains that the appointment of the head of SANS is made by the president, in effect creating a contradictory legislative framework.
Those changes also removed the stipulation of who formally makes the appointment proposal to Parliament, creating further legislative confusion, the veto motives 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 41st 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.
(Roumen Radev photo: president.bg)
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