A parliamentary committee on environment and water has backed three bills to amend the Water Act at first reading. Some of the changes would move day-to-day and follow-up water checks from the river basin directorates to the regional environment and water inspectorates (RIOSV).

Nine MPs voted for each bill, none voted against and six abstained. The committee had earlier debated all three texts together.

Two of the bills come from the Council of Ministers. Under the first, the basin directorates would stay responsible only for managing and planning water resources. They would keep the assessment of water bodies, the sharing out of water and the issuing of permits.

The other government bill cuts red tape and shortens permit procedures and registration regimes. It also covers water abstraction from the Danube and from municipal reservoirs. Its explanatory notes say local authorities would get more powers. Monitoring of sea water would move to the Executive Environment Agency.

Deputy environment and water minister Kostadin Geshev said the change would let the agency collect and process data better and with uniform methods. He said the basin directorates could then focus on their main task, integrated water management by river basin. Asked whether the RIOSV would have enough staff for the checks, he said experts from the directorates would have to "physically move over to the RIOSV as experts". He added that the necessary training would be provided. Dzhevdet Chakarov of the DPS asked the same question.

The third bill was tabled by Stefan Sabrutev and a group of MPs from Progressive Bulgaria. They propose faster administrative procedures, more electronic data exchange and greater legal certainty, without weakening the protection of water and the environment. "The proposals drop requirements that lead to needless costs for applicants without improving the quality of administrative control," the authors write in the explanatory notes.

Progressive Bulgaria supports the changes. Svetlana Mitosheva said that when control sits with the RIOSV, checks can be planned according to risk.

GERB-SDS's position is to abstain, Valeri Lachovski said. Dzhipo Dzhipov and Dimitar Naydenov of Democratic Bulgaria said the texts need to be made more precise. They said the aims of the bills do not match: one cuts red tape, while mayors get more powers.

Tatyana Sultanova of We Continue the Change said she sees a conflict in all three bills and insisted that water resources should be in the hands of one body. She asked the ruling parties whether they know the findings of the temporary committee on water shortage, which worked in parliament in 2025. She said none of the committee's proposals appears in the bills under discussion.

Todor Dzhikov of Progressive Bulgaria asked in turn whether the National Assembly has checked how its September 2025 decision is being carried out. That decision ordered the Council of Ministers to draw up an analysis and an action plan against water shortage.