Sergei Stanishev

Bulgaria's ruling coalition has merged parts of the executive and the legislature into a new body - the Council for development.

This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister for Coalition Policy and Public Administration Rumyana Bachvarova in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) on Sunday.

The Danube Transport Corridor is crucial but its capacity is not sufficiently utilized, according to Sergei Stanishev, President of the Party of European Socialists (PES).

Tsvetan Tsvetanov, former interior minister and deputy PM in the first government of Boyko Borisov (2009-2013) claimed the events from the beginning of 2013 that led to the fall of the government were provoked by "certain Russian interests".

Voting should be made compulsory as early as in 2015, the co-chair of nationalist coalition Patriotic Front has said.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is on a visit to Brussels to hold talks with the heads of the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament.

European socialists' leader Sergey Stanishev has announced he is ready to work with Bulgarian institutions toward Bulgaria's accession into the Schengen area without border control.

Bulgaria's Parliament will discuss at first reading on Wednesday draft amendments to personal income tax law and the reintroduction of progressive tax.

The two different draft amendments - tabled by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the left-wing nationalists Ataka - were overruled last week by the interim parliamentary budget and finances committee.

Tsvetan Tsvetanov, a former Interior Minister and current Chair of conservative GERB's parliament group, has renounced his immunity, the party's press office says.

Tsvetanov has submitted a declaration to Parliament in which he agrees to have his immunity lifted.

Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has asked Parliament to strip 5 MPs of their immunity from prosecution, including Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Volen Siderov, Georgi Svilenski, Iliya Iliev, Dimitar Dimitrov, and MEP Sergey Stanishev.

The move aims to pave the way for criminal proceedings against MPs with immunity from prosecution.

Boyko Borisov, who became Bulgaria's Prime Minister on Friday after Parliament gave him the "thumbs up", is certainly a sensation in Bulgaria's politics, being the only head of government who managed to get the office for a second time since democracy was reinstated in 1989.

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