Bulgarian President Radev vetoes two bills on security agencies chiefs
Bulgarian President Roumen Radev said on October 22 that he vetoed two bills that amended the procedures for appointing the heads of the State Agency Technical Operations, which carries out covert surveillance operations, and the State Intelligence Agency.
The bills, passed by the National Assembly earlier this month, stipulate that the heads of the two agencies are to be appointed by an act of Parliament. Previously, those same positions were filled by presidential decree, but were nominated by the Prime Minister.
This “shared responsibility” in the appointment of security agency chiefs was a guarantee that the appointees would be politically independent, Radev said in his motives.
The amendments risked politicising the process of senior appointments in the national security system, making such appointees dependent on the governing political majority, Radev said.
Radev also said that the decision to create the position of a third deputy head for the two agencies did not appear justified by any operational needs.
The two veto decrees come a week after Radev imposed another veto on the bill to amend the State Agency for National Security (SANS) Act, which similarly took away the president’s role in the appointment of the head of that body.
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 these were his 42nd and 43rd vetoed bills.
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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