Bulgaria’s ruling party boosts dominance by amending Parliament’s rules of procedure

Bulgaria’s ruling party, Roumen Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria, has boosted its dominance through several amendments to Parliament’s rules of procedure, approved at a lengthy sitting on May 28.

Radev’s party used its decisive majority of 131 MPs in the 240-seat House to push through its amendments, over the objections of the opposition groups.

Opposition groups have decried the changes to the rules of procedure as a blow to parliamentary democracy, to which Progressive Bulgaria has responded by claiming the amendments are intended to make the legislature more efficient.

The amendments include a new requirement that to propose the establishment of an ad hoc committee, the signatures of 48 MPs are required.

No group other than Progressive Bulgaria has 48 MPs or more.

Until now, any parliamentary group could propose the creation of an ad hoc committee, irrespective of how many members it has.

The Speaker of the National Assembly will now be able to preside over a debate and participate in the same debate, a change that the opposition sees as violating the impartiality of the Speaker.

The obligation of the Speaker to convene a coordination meeting with the chairpersons of standing committees once a month is abolished.

Parliament will no longer be adjourned during the month-long official campaign period ahead of a parliamentary election. The provision by which sittings of the House and committees are not held until the next National Assembly is sworn in is repealed.

The time for speaking to points of order is reduced from two minutes to one.

Up to three speeches are allowed to members of Parliament who wish to express an opinion different from that of the parliamentary group of which they are members. In this case, the time for a member of Parliament to speak is up to one minute, instead of the previous three minutes.

The time for a rejoinder is reduced from three to two minutes.

The Secretary General of the National Assembly, who heads its administration, no longer needs to be a lawyer with experience, but it is sufficient to have a master’s degree, regardless of the field of education.

The amendments shorten from 72 to 48 hours the deadlines for making bills and portfolio committee reports available before their consideration in standing committees and in the House. The same deadline will apply to second-reading debates.

The amendments change the rules for questions in Parliament, and now allow the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers to postpone oral answers to MPs’ questions in the event of illness, a mission abroad or urgent circumstances, while scrapping the previous limit of two postponements.