Bulgaria's Parliament Restructures Ethics, Conflict of Interest Committees

Volen Siderov, leader of Bulgarian nationalist party Ataka, will no longer be in charge of a parliamentary ethics committee after amendments to the body's rules of procedure.

As a result of the newly adopted amendments, the committee chaired by Siderov will oversee the fight against corruption and conflict of interest, according to reports of dnevnik.bg.

Prior to the changes, the committee was also in charge of parliamentary ethics.

Siderov's appointment as Chair of the parliamentary ethics committee triggered public discontent, causing President Rosen Plevneliev to say that the move was no less scandalous than the appointment of media mogul Delyan Peevski as Chair of the State Agency for National Security (DANS).

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (DPS) announced last week that they would restructure parliamentary committees.

On Thursday, Bulgaria's Parliament voted to establish a new committee in charge of religious affairs and parliamentary ethics.

Under the new provisions, the committee which was supposed to monitor religious affairs will keep track of human rights and civic complaints.

The staff of the two committees is to be appointed during Friday's sitting of Parliament.

The restructuring is to take effect after its promulgation in the State Gazette on Friday.

According to dnevnik.bg, Plamen Slavov from BSP is to head to committee on religious affairs and parliamentary ethics and Tuncher Kardzhaliev from DPS is to chair the committee on human rights and civil complaints.

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