Konstantin Penchev

The Bulgarian Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that the Council of Europe's convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention, does not conform to the Bulgarian constitution.

The Istanbul Convention blurs the boundaries between the sexes and this would make it harder to fight domestic violence. It therefore contradicts the constitution, the Constitutional Court decided on Friday with a majority of 8 to 4 votes.

A former Justice Minister was approved by Parliament on Thursday as a Deputy to the National Ombudsman of Bulgaria.

Diana Kovacheva was unanimously supported by the 152 lawmakers present in the plenary hall.

Her candidacy was proposed by Maya Manolova, who assumed office in October of last year.

The new Bulgarian ombudsman, Maya Manolova, will officially assume office on Tuesday in a short handover ceremony involving the incumbent holder of the position Konstantin Penchev.

The new Bulgarian ombudsman, Socialist MP Maya Manolova, will swear an oath in parliament on Wednesday.

The regular plenary sitting of parliament will begin with depriving Manolova of her powers as MP, Darik radio informs.

Parliament elected her as the new ombudsman at a secret ballot on July 30 in competition with the incumbent holder of the position - Konstantin Penchev.

Bulgarian lawmakers have elected socialist party MP Maya Manolova National Ombudsman, the chairman of her party has said.

Mihail Mikov has made his comments, quoted by daily 24 Chasa, as ballots are still being counted in the single secret voting procedure arranged under Bulgaria's legislation.

The Bulgarian Parliament is to hold an election of the country's new ombudsman on Thursday.

There are two candidates for the position - the incumbent ombudsman Konstantin Penchev, who was nominated for a second term by the Reformist Bloc (RB) and Maya Manolova, who is a nomination of her colleagues from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

Two committees of the Bulgarian Parliament will hold on Thursday hearings of the candidates for ombudsman and deputy governors of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

The parliamentary Religious Denominations and Human Rights Committee will hold a hearing of the two candidates for ombudsman.

Developments at TV7, where a bailiff accompanied by dozens of police officers tried to switch the station off air, are dominating other Bulgarian media outlets on Thursday.

Amendments to the Bank Insolvency Act prepared by the Bulgarian government go against the country's Constitution, according to Bromak, the majority owner of troubled Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank or KTB).

In a statement sent out to the media, a number of EU directives are pointed out that could be "violated" if the amendments are passed.