Bulgarian Parliament Passes Bill on NATO Communications Unit

Bulgarian National Assembly ratified the agreement for the deployment of a NATO switchboard battalion in Bulgaria.

The communication-information system or the so-called NATO module will be constructed near Bulgaria's Gorna Malina.

The deployment of a communication battalion of NATO in Bulgaria has been supported by 120 MPs in Parliament Thursday, with 21 voting in favor, and 5 of them abstained.

Heated debates on the topic started Wednesday with a scandal between representtaives of the nationalist parties ATAKA and Patriotic Front. Leader of ATAKA Volen Siderov catеgorically opposed the bill, stating that the center will be used in the future for coordination of military action on the territory of Ukraine. The party urged for Bulgarian authorities to announce neutrality in order to avoid possible military threats.

''This is not about military equipment, but merely several computers and transmitters,'' said ruling center-right party GERB's member Georgi Bozhinov. ''What we are talking about is a communication-informational center, actually merely a part of it.''

In 2009 NATO's Military Committee and the North-Atlantic Council took the decision for Bulgaria to host a national mobile communications module as a part of the Second Communication Battalion to NATO. Additionally, two higher officers and 55 sergeants that will be provided by Bulgaria.

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