Parliamentary Control Canceled over Bulgaria's Budget 2014

Bulgarian lawmakers continue Friday their work on adopting State budget 2014, file photo

The so-called Parliamentary control, when Bulgarian ministers from the Cabinet respond to lawmakers' questions, was canceled Friday as the vote on State budget became priority.

The cancelation includes questioning of Prime Minister, Plamen Oresharski, on the Russian-sponsored gas pipeline South Stream.

The session, however, was once again delayed because lawmakers from the formerly ruling and now main opposition formation, the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB) were in plenary hall, but did not register in the voting system.

The Speaker of the Parliament, Mihail Mikov, conducted around 9 am two registration procedures, which showed that 108 MPs, out of a total of 240, were present; however, visibly much more people were there.

This prompted Mikov to ask for a "roll call" count, prompting GERB MPs to leave the hall.

They did return after a 30-minute break, allowing the Parliament to continue work on the State budget 2014.

MPs remained in plenary hall close to midnight Thursday evening to adopt texts from the budget.

Legislators are also debating GERB's demand for the resignation of the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament from the ruling left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Maya Manolova, on grounds of systematic conducting of parliamentary sittings in breach of the house's internal rules.

In particular, they claimed that the socialist vice-chair worked to prevent opposition MPs from receiving adequate speaking time.

Manolova labeled the demand an attempt to slow down the adoption of the Budget.

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