Anti-corruption Draft Bill Clears Legal Affairs Committee in Bulgaria's Parliament

The Legal Affairs Committee in Bulgaria's Parliament backed the draft bill to combat high-level corruption proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva, public radio broadcaster BNR reported on Wednesday.

The opinion of the Legal Affairs Committee is indicative of the possible outcome of the vote in the plenary hall, according to BNR.

The adoption of the draft bill is one of the top priorities of the Reformist Bloc, the junior partner in Bulgaria's minority coalition government, and especially of bloc member DBG (Bulgaria of Citizens Movement), the party led by Kuneva.

The Reformist Bloc recently threatened to leave the government coalition unless the draft bill was passed by Parliament.  

The proposed anti-graft legislation, however, has failed to make it past the Anti-corruption Committee.

The head of the Legal Affairs Committee, Danail Kirilov, said after Wednesday's vote that he was ready to form a working group that would try to polish the text of the draft bill between first and second reading to ensure its adoption by Parliament.

The Parliament rejected an initial version of the draft bill on first reading last year, citing concerns about potential abuse of powers by anti-corruption investigators.