Debate on Constitutional Revisions Dropped from Parliament's Agenda 

Sofia, July 24 (BTA) - The first reading of amendments to the
Constitution was dropped from Parliament's agenda on Friday. The
 bill of amendments was sponsored by Chairperson Tsetska
Tsacheva and a group of MPs.

Tsacheva herself moved that the debate be dropped from the
agenda, reasoning that a majority should be gathered for the
introduction of a new bill amending the Basic Law.

Earlier this week Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said there were
two options: adoption of the existing bill backed by 160 of the
240 MPs, or collecting 180 signatures for a new bill to be
adopted in an accelerated procedure.

Chavdar Georgiev MP of BSP-Left Bulgaria insisted that the
debate should be held: "You announced a great compromise, a
triumph of reformist policy; why don't you give a chance to this
 triumph to be seen? We consider this a mere failure."

ABV leader Georgi Purvanov told journalists: "The signature of
our group's floor leader shows that we remain part of the debate
 and of the efforts to amend the Constitution." He said ABV
could back the bill on first reading. However, when the MPs
debate the ratios between the parliamentary quota and the
judiciary quota for the members of the two chambers of the
Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on second reading, ABV will vote
against unless something changes. The fact that this matter is
being referred to the Constitutional Court while the signatures
are being collected shows the bill's sponsors are not confident
that they are right, said Purvanov.

On Thursday, Reformist Bloc Co-Floor Leader Radan Kanev
explained that the new bill will include three main points on
which there is a consensus: dividing the SJC into a chamber of
prosecutors and a chamber of judges; introducing direct election
 of SJC members by the judiciary; and authorizing the SJC
Inspectorate to check the assets of judicial officers and
monitor them for possible conflicts of interest.

Regarding the two controversial issues - the appointing powers
of the two SJC chambers in relation to the powers of the SJC
Plenum, and the ratios between the parliamentary quota and the
judiciary quota for the members of the two chambers - the new
bill will keep the provisions proposed in the original bill on
the assumption that the Constitutional Court will be approached
on both matters and the MPs will take its judgment  into account
 during the second reading.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, Kanev said the Reformist Bloc
 made a big political sacrifice. He said he told protesters who
thought the Bloc had backed out of the original bill that on the
 contrary, the right-wing coalition had scored a great success
by keeping the division of the SJC as initially proposed by the
Reformist Bloc. It is nothing short of a political miracle to
have 20 MPs and manage to talk around 160 MPs more, some of whom
 are opposed to this programme.

Kanev added that the Bloc had to give up its proposal for open
voting in the SJC, for which there is no majority in this
Parliament.

Asked if there are differences between the Democrats for Strong
Bulgaria and the Bulgaria for the Citizens Movement (BCM), Kanev
 said those two parties of the Reformist Bloc hold a joint
position. The BCM stated on Thursday that the new bill did not
reflect the public's expectation sufficiently but the party
would support it and the MPs of the BCM would vote according to
their conscience.