Less than a month after the new government of Rosen Zhelyazkov was elected, the parties supporting it in parliament - GERB, BSP, TISP and the ARF (known better as MRF-Dogan), started to adopt procedures to elect members of the regulatory and judicial bodies, which are nominated by the National Assembly.
Last week, the energy committee in Parliament adopted rules to elect the chairman and two members of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (KEVR), and this week the procedures for the election of chairmen and members of 15 other different bodies, most of them of crucial importance - the Court of Audit, the sub-governor of the National Bank (BNB), the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC), the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) and the National Health Insurance Fund. Along with them, the procedure to elect two key personnel bodies in the judiciary - the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and the inspectorate attached to it - has also been opened.
Why the regulators are important
At stake is the allocation of a total of 96 seats in 19 different state bodies whose mandates have long expired and some of which, such as the Inspectorate of the SJC, are about to serve a second term without having being elected. Their replacement has been delayed because of the political crisis of the last four years and the frequent changes of regular and caretaker governments. Attempts by the two cabinets elected by parliament - that of Kiril Petkov and the rotating one of Nikolay Denkov, were blocked every time the issue was put on the agenda.
Most of these bodies hold sway because they regulate relations in arenas such as the economic, energy and financial sectors. For this reason, political parties greatly prize having their people in them to exert influence over various spheres. Moreover, these regulators have long mandates, and whoever is involved in their distribution will wield control over them, even if they are not then in a governing majority.
In the case of the election of the two deputy senior auditors, there is another significant issue at stake - they are on the list of potential candidates for caretaker prime minister from which the president can choose if he has to appoint a caretaker cabinet. This amendment to the basic law is currently challenged in the Constitutional court, but the case has not yet been decided. The two deputies under Audit Chamber head Dimitar Glavchev with expired mandates are Goritsa Grancharova-Kozhareva, who was nominated as caretaker PM but whose attempt to form a government failed, and Toshko Todorov. Both have held the posts since 2015. Besides them, two more members will be elected. According to the law, they are proposed by the president of the audit body, but voted on by parliament. Also of equal importance is the election of an ombudsman and his deputy, whose procedure has also already been set in motion.
Governing the energy sector
Procedures to elect members of the regulatory bodies started last week, when during the meeting of the Energy Committee in Parliament its chairwoman Pavela Mitova (TISP) surprisingly introduced as an emergency item on the agenda the adoption of the rules for the election of the chairman and two members of KEVR.
The mandate of KEVR chairman Ivan Ivanov expired in 2020. During Kiril Petkov's government in 2022, the parliament elected Stanislav Todorov, proposed by WCC, to the post, but his election was challenged in the constitutional court by GERB on the grounds that he was ineligible. Subsequently, senior magistrates declared the election illegal and Ivanov returned to office. Apart from him, two other members of KEVR have expired terms.
Changing the antitrust authority
The current composition of another key body - the CPC - will be completely replaced. This is the most important regulator for the business environment in Bulgaria, which approves all major deals and public procurements in the country. The current seven-member CPC was elected during Borissov's second term in 2016, and at the end of his third term GERB changed the CPC law, extending their stay in the regulatory body by two years - from five to seven. The CPC is chaired by Yulia Nenkova, considered close to GERB leader Boyko Borissov and mother of Alexander Nenkov MP (GERB).
A massive change in the financial regulators
The FSC is about to undergo a major replacement, too, with the election of a chairman and three deputy chairmen in charge of investment, insurance and private pensions respectively. Currently, the five-member regulator that oversees the multi-billion-levs non-banking financial sectors, operates with a reduced staff of three. Chairman Boyko Atanasov was elected in 2019. By law, the chairman is elected by parliament, and the deputies are also voted on by deputies, but on the chairman's proposal. At BNB, Radoslav Milenkov, the deputy governor in charge of banking supervision, is due to complete his term in March. The expectation is that the governor will propose him for re-election and deputies will vote him another six years in office.
In addition to these regulators, the procedure for the election of eleven members from the quota of the SJC and of the chairman and ten members of the inspectorate to the SJC is to be launched. The rules for their election are described in legislation with specific deadlines and according to GERB MPs the whole procedure of nominations, hearings of the candidates and their election will be at the end of April.
For now it is unclear how the seats in these bodies will be distributed among the four formations of the majority, as MPs from MRF-Dogan say that so far the issue has not been tabled at the coalition council meetings and no talks have been held with them about it. The regulatory and control bodies are elected by a simple majority and only for the members of the parliamentary quota in the SJC and its inspectorate the ruling party will have to seek broader support from one of the opposition formations because a minimum of 160 votes are needed for the election.
Less than a month after the new government of Rosen Zhelyazkov was elected, the parties supporting it in parliament - GERB, BSP, TISP and the ARF (known better as MRF-Dogan), started to adopt procedures to elect members of the regulatory and judicial bodies, which are nominated by the National Assembly.
Last week, the energy committee in Parliament adopted rules to elect the chairman and two members of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (KEVR), and this week the procedures for the election of chairmen and members of 15 other different bodies, most of them of crucial importance - the Court of Audit, the sub-governor of the National Bank (BNB), the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC), the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) and the National Health Insurance Fund. Along with them, the procedure to elect two key personnel bodies in the judiciary - the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and the inspectorate attached to it - has also been opened.
