Bulgaria Govt Launching Validity Check for Drivers' Licenses

The Bulgarian government has said it is starting checks of driving licenses that could be "subject to manipulation".

Measures related to "fake examination protocols" have been discussed by officials at a Friday meeting to root out practices that call into question the proper issuance of a number of licenses in Bulgaria.

The meeting of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov with Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova, her ministry's Chief Secretary Georgi Kostov, other police officials and members of prosecuting authorities comes days after a number of arrests at the Road Transport Administration Executive Agency of Bulgaria.

More than a dozen people working for the agency were taken into custody, including its head, Tsvetelin Tsvetanov.

Prosecutors suspect they were involved in the irregular issuance of driving licenses and certificates to road transport companies.

In a statement after the meeting, the government links the problem with driver's licenses to the high number of road accidents in Bulgaria (numbering 7225 for 2015) which claimed 708 lives and left 8971 people injured (2295 of them heavily) last year.

A recent European Commission report has put Bulgaria and Romania at the top of a road death rate statistics for all 28 member states.