Bulgaria MP Committee Rejects Tighter Rules for Disclosing Ex-Security Agents

The Internal Affairs Committee with Bulgaria's Parliament has turned down a proposal to abolish an institution disclosing names of people who worked with or were affiliated to the Soviet-era security apparatus.

The motion, submitted by opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), has been rejected by a majority of 10-4, with one abstention.

Under the proposed rules, which are yet to be discussed before full Parliament, the archive of the so-called Committee for Disclosing the Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security, also known as the Files Committee, should be handed to a new institution, and the committee itself is to be abolished.

Additionally, there will be no obligation for the Committee to make a routine checkup in its archive for people holding certain public offices.

Socialists, whose party is the heir to the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP, the dominant force under Communist rule), maintain the Committee, operating since 2007, instills hatred into society instead of shedding more light on files themselves.

They also maintain the committee hinders the right of law enforcement and security services, which traditionally use collaborators and agents.

The body was launched under a socialist-dominated government as a move they widely considered as alternative to lustration.

The issue of disclosing affiliation to the security apparatus or the military intelligence has been divisive in Bulgaria, with a number of people active in Bulgaria's public life having had ties to the services.
 

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