All Institutions in Bulgaria Dealing with Road Safety will be Consolidated into a Single Unit

Sofia. All institutions dealing with road safety will be consolidated into a single unit with control functions. This transpired from the words of Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev at a press briefing in the Council of Ministers after a meeting with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Focus News Agency reports.

"We had another meeting on road safety with the prime minister. We discussed the issue not only at the level of micromanagement and specific road sections, not only at the level of more efficient control of one or another institution, but also in terms of changing the entire body of government with respect to the issue," he said. "We are unanimous that change is needed. All relevant departments and functions within the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Regional Development, the Road Infrastructure Agency and other institutions, including the Ministry of Education, should be consolidated into a single unit that should have direct responsibilities related to road safety policy. In this way, there will be no the typical fragmentation of responsibilities and the complicated question which department is most responsible in case of irregularities or an accident," the deputy prime minister said. He further said that in order to make such a unit effective, there should be very fine balance between its powers and the responsibilities of all other institutions. Donchev explained that the main function of this unit would be to exercise stringent control over all other government agencies concerning road safety, so that they do a better job; a unit that will be responsible for developing policies in this area.