Bulgaria's Interim Govt Passes New Cabinet Structure

During their first cabinet meeting, the caretaker ministers of Bulgaria have agreed on a new structure of the government and have been assigned several tasks.

There will be four Deputy Prime Ministers in the interim government, the same number as in the previous cabinet, according to the list of decisions sent by the government's press office.

Their portfolios, however, will be slightly different as the elected cabinet had a Deputy PM for "coalition policy", while the caretaker government does not include such a post and has a deputy to oversee the preparation of Bulgaria's Council of the EU presidency instead.  

Interim Health Minister Ilko Semerdzhiev will also be Deputy Prime Minister in charge of social policies.

Stefan Yanev, the caretaker Defense Minister, for his part will have a Deputy Prime Minister office overseeing internal order and security.

Deputy Prime Ministers on EU funding (Malina Krumova) and the rotating EU presidency (Denitsa Zlateva) will have no portfolios.

The Prime Minister will have as many as 16 staff, including advisers, experts and assistants in his political cabinet. Each deputy Prime Minister with a portfolio will have three experts and the same number of advisers and assistants on his or her team.

Deputy PMs without portfolios will count on 10-strong cabinets.

In a separate move, Health Minister Semerdzhiev and Labour Minister Galab Donev have been tasked to be the government's representatives to the National Council on Tripartite Cooperation - meetings of state authorities with businesses and trade unions.

As Deputy PM on internal order, Stefan Yanev has been tasked with the overall coordination of the early parliamentary election scheduled for...