Bulgaria's President 'Cannot be Investigated by Parliament'

The Bulgarian Parliament has no legal ground to investigate into President Rosen Plevneliev's actions, Georgi Markov, a former constitutional judge, explained.

Speaking for Bulgaria's private channel NOVA TV, Markov said that lawmakers only had the right to debate on whether the President had committed an act of high treason or infringed the Constitution and if two-thirds of MPs agreed, their allegation could be introduced to the Constitutional Court.

Markov added that President Plevneliev could stay calm as a majority of 161 (out of 240) lawmakers could not be gathered in Parliament to back such a motion.

Bulgaria's Parliament approved on Thursday the creation of a committee assigned the task of investigating “the activities of the EDCs [electricity distribution companies] and the concessionaires and their unauthorized contacts with politicians".

Even though the officially adopted text does not target Plevneliev, Ataka, who proposed the move, has repeatedly spoken in favour of looking into the President's visit.

The Committee has a three-month term and will be presided by Magdalena Tasheva, who has been among the Ataka's unofficial spokespeople regarding the activities of Plevneliev.

Bulgarian President's visit to Vienna, during which he held talks with EVN Bulgaria chairman Stefan Siskovic, coincided with the debt dispute between power distributors and DKEVR, with the latter claiming that they owe hundreds of millions of BGN to the National Electricity Company (NEK) and grid operators claiming it was vice versa.