Bulgaria's GERB, DPS, Reformist Bloc Fail to Agree on Constitutional Amendments

After nearly two hours of talks on Tuesday, center-right party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), liberal party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and right-wing formation the Reformist Bloc failed to reach agreement on draft constitutional amendments.

At the end of the meeting Prime Minister and GERB leader Boyko Borisov announced that there were two options, one of them, following DPS' latest request, to withdraw the existing draft amendments to Constitution and to submit a new project backed by 180 MPs as fast as possible, seeking to secure its approval by September 15, or to proceed with the existing set of amendments, seeking the support of 160 MPs, thereby delaying the procedure by end-2015.

DPS have called for a new set of changes to the Constitution based on the three key points considered as points of consensus, according to DPS leader Lyutvi Mestan.

Speaking before the meeting with Borisov and Kanev, Mestan demanded the withdrawal of the existing project and vowed the support of DPS for a new one in an interview for private TV station bTV.

Mestan, as cited by mediapool.bg, claimed that in the case of a new project there would also be enough time to adopt the constitutional changes before the local elections in October.

To illustrate his point, he said that if the new project was submitted alongside the withdrawal of the current one, it could be put to the vote in one month's time, or 21-23 August, provided that it was backed by 180 MPs.

He underscored that in the case of only 160 MPs in favor of the constitutional amendments, the best-case scenario for the current project, it would take 2-5 months to move on to the second reading, meaning that the changes could not be passed before the local...