Left, Right Opposition Slam Limits on Bulgaria's Trade Registry

Both the right and left-wing opposition have harshly criticized the decision of the ruling majority to limit the public access to the Business (Trade) Registry as of 2012.

"The adopted amendments make the Trade Registry meaningless, it will no longer be public and transparent," Maya Manolova from the Bulgarian Socialist Party said.

"The restrictions spell the end of one very successful reform and nobody knows why. May be somebody is interested in keeping certain business dependencies secret?", she asked from the parliamentary rostrum.

According to Manolova the lack of free access to the whole corporate data means that privatization contracts and protocols from shareholders' meetings will remain secret, which will only benefit fraudsters.

"Investigative journalists obviously make the rulers feel uneasy."

"This is a bad decision, don't support it," Ekaterina Mihaylova from the right-wing Blue Coalition urged the members of parliament.

The coalition leader Martin Dimitrov took her protest a step further.

"Even the previously ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party did not dare to lay its hands on the transparency. Making the access so complicated breaches European directives," he said.

According to Dimitrov restricting the access to the Trade Registry will fuel the number of frauds, while the feeling of insecurity will trigger "the next big scandal in Bulgaria".

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