Bulgaria Moves to Make Major Diplomatic Reshuffle - Report

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov is expected to propose a major diplomatic reshuffle during Wednesday's cabinet sitting

As many as 25 new Ambassadors abroad will be proposed, dnevnik.bg reports, citing its own sources. Many of them are expected to substitute the Ambassadors who were exposed as former secret agents of the Bulgarian Communist State Security.

According to dnevnik.bg, Bulgaria's Deputy Foreign Ministry Konstantin Dimitrov will be appointed as country's new Ambassador in London. Another Deputy Foreign Minister, Dimitar Tsanchev, is expected to be appointed as Permanent Representative to EU.

Angel Cholakov, Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, is expected to be appointed as Ambassador to Italy. He would replace ex-Communist agent Atanas Mladenov.

Five Bulgarian interim Ambassadors are to be named as permanent envoys abroad, the report says, citing Vienna, Pretoria, Damascus, Bratislava and Islamabad.

Gen. Nikola Kolev, former President Georgi Parvanov's cabinet chief, may become Bulgaria's Ambassador to the Netherlands.

In the beginning of January, Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court revoked the recall orders issued by Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov to Bulgaria's ambassadors to the Netherlands, Serbia and Greece.

In September, Mladenov ordered a group of Ambassadors to return to Sofia on business trips for an indefinite period that could well last until their terms in office expired or their successors were appointed.

The Foreign Minister based his actions on the amended Diplomatic Service Act which allowed him to resort to such measures if the Ambassadors' terms in office were about to expire.

In end-November, however, the Constitutional Court revoked the amendments to the Diplomatic Service Act banning former State Security agents from taking up key diplomatic positions. The Foreign Ministry is currently appealing the Constitutional Court's ruling.

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