Parliament rejected four requests for hearings and approved only the one from Progressive Bulgaria. Interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev will appear before MPs tomorrow over the guardrail contracts and the funding of Delyan Peevski's flights, the National Assembly session showed. See our original report: Democratic Bulgaria calls for emergency hearing after strike on ships.
Parliament speaker Mihaela Dotsova read out the requests to add hearings to the agenda. The second request, from Democratic Bulgaria (DB), concerns the attacks on 6 October on the two merchant ships in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone. The party wanted prime minister Rumen Radev, interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev, defence minister Dimitar Stoyanov and transport and communications minister Georgi Peev to appear. Also on the list were State Agency for National Security (DANS) chair Plamen Tonchev, State Intelligence Agency chair Antoan Gechev and Military Intelligence Service director Brig Gen Venelin Venev.
In its first request, DB asked for a hearing on the pardon of Ognyan Atanasov, known as the "Petrich Escobar". The hearing was meant to be on tomorrow's agenda. The list included the chief director of the Execution of Sentences Chief Directorate, the DANS chair, the interior ministry's chief secretary, the head of the organised crime directorate (GDBOP) and the head of the specialised prison hospital for active treatment in Sofia.
DB wanted to know how the medical papers on Atanasov's conduct during his prison sentence were drawn up, as they were used for the pardon. Other topics were reports of possible pressure and threats against doctors, an exchange of information with the president's office, and possible links between Atanasov and DANS and the interior ministry.
Vazrazhdane asked for hearings with health minister Katya Ivkova, National Health Insurance Fund (NZOK) head Vladimir Daskalov and Alexandra Savova, chair of the National Council on Prices and Reimbursement of Medicinal Products. The party wanted to discuss rising prices of medical services and medicines, the burden of co-payments on patients and plans for affordable treatment.
DPS asked for a hearing with deputy prime minister and finance minister Galab Donev, Demerdzhiev and regional minister Ivan Shishkov. The topics were the reported improper practices in contracts for installing guardrails, and information that money from these contracts was channelled to pay for Peevski's flights. DPS MPs wanted to know how much the flights cost, how they were invoiced, who paid for them and whether related parties were involved.
Today the first item on parliament's agenda is the first reading of a bill from We Continue the Change to amend the Healthcare Establishments Act.