Bulgaria's GERB, BSP to Seek Consensus on Constitutional Amendments

The talks on garnering parliamentary majority for the amendments to the Bulgarian constitution will continue on Wednesday.

This will happen at a meeting between Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of the main ruling party (GERB) Boyko Borisov and leader of the largest opposition party (BSP) Mihail Mikov.

The talks are scheduled to take place before the sitting of parliament and the meeting of the Council of Ministers, daily Dnevnik reports.

BSP continues to maintain its opposition to the amendments, regarding them as contradictory and insufficient to solve the problems of the judiciary.

According to the Socialists, the amendments do not fulfill the goals of the strategy for judicial reform, which has already been approved by the parliament.

BSP has not explicitly pointed to which texts it is opposed, but according to jurists of the party, the division of the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) into two colleges - one of judges and another of prosecutors can be achieved without a constitutional amendment.

Borisov is seeking to achieve consensus on three topics - the division of VSS into two colleges, enhancing the role of the VSS inspectorate and the direct election of judges and prosecutors.

On Tuesday, the PM failed to reach consensus with the second largest opposition party DPS, which came out with alternative proposals on the three topics.

The proposal of DPS is for the tabled bill to be withdrawn and an alternative one to be submitted, bearing the signatures of 180 MPs, who represent the ¾ majority required for constitutional amendments.

Following their meeting on Tuesday, Borisov announced that there are two options - either to table a new bill or to subject the present draft to a voting on Friday.

The PM...