23 juin 2007
BULGARIA IMPOSES FINES ON CARRIERS FAILING TO PROVIDE INFORMATION ON FOREIGN PASSENGERS
Bulgarian air carriers that fail to provide information on their foreign passengers to border police will be fined from 6000 to 10 000 leva. Parliament approved on second reading Foreigners Act, which envisions the regulations, Bulgarian News Agency BTA reported. After the changes have been approved, air carriers will have to provide to border police officials more detailed information on their foreign passengers. Carriers have to submit information on passenger names, date of birth, citizenship, arrival and departure date and hour. Parliament also decided that foreigners will be allowed to receive long-term stay permits if they have a visa valid for six months. Permits will be issued for a period of one year and can be renewed.
17 juin 2007
BULGARIA ADVANCES IN INTEGRATION OF EUROPEAN LEGISLATION- GRUNCHAROVA
Bulgaria has made progress in the acceptance of European legislation, though some requirements have not been met yet, European Integration Minister Gergana Gruncharova said.
Though the country still has a lot of work to do, it is moving in the right direction. The percentage of measures that have not been implemented yet decreased from 27 to 23.5 per cent, Gruncharova said.
Within a month Bulgaria accepted 14 directives and 11 are to be ratified.
Bulgaria still lacks information on the upcoming European Commission report on its reform progress to be issued in the end of May.
“I expect objective and impartial text on everything that happened in the justice and home affair sector and the respective notes and recommendations,” Gruncharova said.
Gruncharova said that she was hoping for constructive criticism on which the Justice Ministry could base its plans for further reforms.
07 juin 2007
Bulgaria's Classified Information Law Unchanged in Past 5 Years
Bulgaria's law for the protection of classified information law has not been amended in the past five years, which is worrisome, the head of the country's State Commission on Information Security (SCIS) said.
SCIS head Tsveta Markova attended Wednesday a sitting of the Supreme Judicial Council.
There are three issues that need to be clarified concerning the joint work of SCIS and the Council, Markova added.
The first one is connected with the courts and the investigation bodies that need to open their own registration desks in order to get unique identification numbers.
The second issue is the need of examination of the court chairpersons and prosecution offices from the security services.
The third one concerns the development and issuing of practical guidance for dealing with secret files.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=81545
04 mai 2007
Bulgaria Oks Judicial System Bill
Bulgarian lawmakers adopted at first reading the Judicial System bill, which was tabled by the government. The draft legislation sets out the status and powers of an inspection body within the Supreme Judicial Council to monitor the work of the whole judicial system.
A total of 128 MPs supported the bill, while 31 voted against. Two lawmakers abstained from voting.
The inspection body was the most controversial part of the latest amendments to the Constitution, the fourth since its adoption by the Great National Assembly in 1991.
Under the freshly approved bill the prosecuting authority's representation quota in the Supreme Judicial Council will have the upper hand at the expense of the investigators' quota.
Bulgaria joined the European Union on January 1 but the functioning of its judiciary and the country's failure to jail notorious criminals and combat corruption prompted the EU to apply the strictest ever monitoring mechanisms on the Balkan newcomer.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=79907
BGN 5000 Fine for Fascist, Anti-Democratic Propaganda in Bulgaria
Bulgaria's parliament adopted Thursday an amendment to the penal code, which provides for imposing a fine of BGN 5000 to all who promote fascist or other anti-democratic ideology.
The fine will be imposed also for forced change of the instituted by Bulgaria's basic law social and state system.
People who in an illegal way receive information of any type of message, addressed to another person, sent by phone, telegraph, through the Internet or other computer or telecommunication network by using special technical means face three years in prison and a BGN 5000 fine.
The amendment provides for 6 years in prison and a BGN 200 000 fine for all who without a licence or any other document or permit transport, transit sell or buy guns or products with double use. The same will be applied when these products and actions violate interdictions, restrictions or sanctions imposed by UNSC, OSCE, EU or are the subject of an international contract signed by Bulgaria.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=79863
03 mai 2007
Parliament to vote amendments to war veterans act
| 3 May 2007 | 07:51 | FOCUS News Agency |
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Sofia. Bulgarian Parliament will vote the amendments to the war veterans act on second reading at the beginning of today’s plenary session. The amendment offered by Georgi Bozhinov, Stoyko Yankov and Plamen Slavov from the Coalition For Bulgaria is the most disputable one. It provides people who have taken part in the anti-fascist resistance during WWII to be declared as participants in the Patriotic War in 1944-45. The MPs have also suggest those who have participated in the anti-fascist resistance to be given all rights under the war veterans act. |
10 mars 2007
La Bulgarie autorise les résidents étrangers à acheter des terrains
Au terme d’un amendement de loi sur la propriété adopté vendredi par le parlement bulgare, les étrangers de l'Espace économique européen (EEE) résidant en Bulgarie peuvent désormais acheter des terrains.
Avec la nouvelle loi, les ressortissants de l'EEE peuvent donc acquérir des terrains pour y construire leur propre logement en résidence principale. Mais ce droit est toutefois refusé s'il s'agit d'une résidence secondaire.
Enfin, des personnes physiques et juridiques en dehors de l'EEE ne pourront cependant acquérir le droit de propriété sur des terrains et des forêts que par héritage ou s'il existe un accord bilatéral intergouvernemental spécifique, ratifié par une majorité de deux tiers au parlement bulgare.
http://www.batiactu.com/data/09032007/09032007-160512.html
09 mars 2007
PARLIAMENT IN BULGARIA TO VOTE ON CHANGES IN FOREIGNERS' OWNERSHIP RIGHTS
Bulgarian Parliament discussed on second reading the changes in the law for ownership including a change from a banning to a restrictive regime of ownership for foreigners.
Parliament will vote the texts on March 9, Parliament speaker Georgi Pirinski said.
According to the ownership ban foreign citizens and companies do not have the right to own land in the country. Law changes will give the right of land ownership under a condition requiring international contracts on property deals.
The restriction for acquiring land for a second residential property by EU citizens without permanent address in the country will remain.
Parliament will also vote on the removal of the ban saying that foreign companies and individuals can not own protected forests and land terrains. State-protected property has been excluded from the list of terrains which could be acquired.
Self-employed EU citizens, who want to settle in Bulgaria permanently will have the right to acquire agricultural plots.
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/parliament-in-bulgaria-to-vote-on-changes-in-foreigners-ownership-rights/id_21124/catid_74
02 mars 2007
Bulgaria Mulls Regulation Criteria on Emigration
Emigration to Bulgaria should be regulated by setting special criteria for people from other countries, the State Economic and Social Council claimed, cited by Darik News.
Citizens from other countries should be permitted to reside in Bulgaria after they are found eligible on several criteria, such as education, work qualifications and needs of the country's business.
The Council also suggested that a special service for emigration to be founded, as well as the creation of a unit that will closely observe the fulfilment of the Lisbon criteria.
The suggestions were made at the presentation of recommendations of the Council on the execution of the national program for reforms in Bulgaria for the 2006-2009 period.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=76924
Bulgaria's Ultra-nationalist Party to Introduce Strict Law on Printed Media
Bulgaria's ultra-nationalist party Ataka will introduce a law on the printed media in the country in the parliament next week, party's press centre reported.
The draft law provides for restraining newspapers from free sell on the market for severe breaches. The party will also insist on founding a parliamentary council on printed media.
If adopted, the law will force newspapers and magazines to pay for a licence.
The council on printed media will be given the right to issue the licences and if it ascertains some breaches it will also have right to take them away.
The publishers will be obliged to use accurately and objectively the information they obtained. If a certain individual in some way finds a published article offensive for his/her personality, the law provides for a seven-day period in which a complaint in court may be lodged. The affected person will also have the right to ask for a written excuse and explanation in the printed media that offended him in some way.
The most significant point in the draft law is that printed media will be obliged to reveal the sources from which it has taken the information unless there is a trial on the case running at the same time.
Printed media with religious and pornographic content to be sold only in specialized places, the Ataka members proposed.
The compilation of this new media law was triggered by an article published last week in the most widely circulated Bulgarian newspaper. The article accused the leader of Ataka, Volen Siderov, in receiving a large sum of money from his arch enemy ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=77261