Parliament discusses amendments to the Railways Act and ratification of the Samoa Agreement

Parliament is about to consider on first reading amendments to the Railways Act, introduced by the Council of Ministers, according to the adopted work program of the National Assembly, published on the institution's website. The proposed amendments are in line with the requirements of European legislation and affect the status and functions of the Executive Agency "Railway Administration".

The draft proposes that the Executive Agency "Railway Administration" be designated as a registering authority in the field of rail transport, in implementation of the requirements of the Implementing Decision (EU) of the European Commission. In this regard, the abolition of the current text, which assigns the agency the maintenance of the National Vehicle Register, is envisaged.

After the change, the agency will only keep the "Register of permits for commissioning of stationary subsystems" and the "Register of permits for commissioning of vehicles with a sphere of use - the railway infrastructure of the Republic of Bulgaria". In this way, a distinction is made between registration functions and those of keeping national registers of vehicles, in accordance with European standards.

The agenda also includes an item for the ratification of the "Partnership Agreement between the European Union and its member states, on the one hand, and the members of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, on the other hand", signed in Samoa on November 15, 2023. The document, known as the "Samoa Agreement", covers a wide range of areas of cooperation, including development, trade, human rights and climate policies.

The work program of the National Assembly for the day also provides for regular Friday parliamentary control. It will be attended by the Minister of Culture in resignation Marian Bachev, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Georgi Tahov and the Minister of Energy Zhecho Stankov, who will answer questions from the MPs on current topics from their departments.

Yesterday, MPs did not hold a meeting after three consecutive checks in the plenary hall established a lack of quorum. The intention of the ruling majority was to include in the program for a second reading the discussion of amendments to the Electoral Code, some of which provide for the introduction of voting with scanning optical devices.

In the corridors of parliament on Thursday, the chairman of the parliamentary group "We Continue the Change" Asen Vasilev stated that the group "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" will continue to boycott the quorum in the plenary hall if a new attempt is made to include the Electoral Code in the agenda. "We have seen that there is already a request from the group "There is such a people" the second reading of the EC to be included as a point in tomorrow's plenary session," he explained.

According to Vasilev, this Electoral Code is designed to ensure "100 percent paper voting". He commented that the proposed introduction of scanning devices in practice cannot be implemented before the elections, as the new machines will not be able to be certified in time in accordance with the deadlines set in the current Electoral Code.