Bills on Interior Ministry, DANS to Be Submitted to Parliament

Amendments to the structure of Bulgaria's Ministry of Interior and the state security agendy DANS are to be tabled on Wednesday, the biggest party GERB's Parliament group chair Tsvetan Tsvetanov has said.

Changes to the Interior Ministry Act and the State Agency for National Security Act would reverse to much-discussed moves of the previous Parliament to amend the legislation at the proposal of the then-ruling socialist-liberal axis.

At the same time GERB, the senior partner in Bulgaria's coalition government, has made clear both institutions need "reforms".

The draft legislation envisages that Chief Directorate Combating Organized Crime (GBDOP), a structure which was taken out of the Interior Ministry, is to return to the ministry.

Two structures of the police forces, security and criminal police, are set to merge into so-called Chief Directorate National Police.

If the bills are passed, this will restore the previous procedure regulating the appointment and activity of the Interior Ministry's Chief Secretary and the head of the State Agency for National Security (DANS).

The Chief Secretary is picked by the government, whereas his candidacy was previously proposed by the President and appointed with a Council of Ministers' decree.

DANS gets its chief after a vote in Parliament, with the previous legislation's first appointment to the post, Delyan Peevski, opening the floodgates of huge protests last summer.

A separate bill about a so-called State Intelligence Agency (DAR) that has to mold a single structure out of civil and military intelligence.