Security Services Control Parliamentary Committee to no longer have rotating chair

The Parliamentary Committee for Control of the Security Services, the Application and use of the Special Intelligence Means and the Data Access under the Electronic Communications Act will be constructed based on the model of other standing committees, respecting the ratio between the number of parliamentary groups and will have a permanent chair, the National Assembly decided on Wednesday. Parliament adopted a change in the Regulations for the organization and activities of the National Assembly, introduced by Boyko Borissov, Kiril Petkov, Delyan Peevski and Atanas Atanasov.

Until now, the Committee was formed on a parity basis (an equal number of deputies from each parliamentary group) and was chaired on a rotating basis for one parliamentary session according to the number of parliamentary groups. Due to the rotation, Nikolay Drenchev from Vazrazhdane was elected its chair.

At the end of the previous week, Movement for Rights and Freedoms Co-Floor Leader Delyan Peevski commented that national security is at risk. Peevski described as a "scandal" the fact that the Committee is headed by a MP from Vazrazhdane and said that he would prepare an amendment to the rules of the National Assembly to fix this issue.

With the changes in the parliamentary rules, only the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs will still be formed on a parity basis and have a rotating chair.