THE first reading of the constitutional amendments, aimed at improving the work of the judicial system and the fight against organised crime, began on Friday, February 3. Among key debate issues were the immunity of magistrates and MPs and the rights of municipalities to determine the size of local taxes and the type of local fees.

Deputy head of the parliamentary group of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Ljutvi Mestan said on January 30 that constitutional amendments should be approved by April this year, when the European Commission's monitoring report, together with its proposed accession date for Bulgaria, is due.

During his two-day visit to Bulgaria on January 23-24, commission Vice-President and Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini approved the motioned constitutional changes and said that it would be good if the entire package of motions is passed.

The procedure for adopting constitutional amendments was accepted by Parliament January 23. According to the procedure, if amendments gather three-quarters of the 240-member Parliament vote, they will be considered accepted. If they are supported by less than three-quarters but not less than two-thirds of the votes of all MPs, the bill will be tabled for new consideration not earlier than two and not later than five months after the vote. At the new deliberation, the bill would be passed if no less than two-thirds of all MPs voted for it.

At a second reading, the amendments will be discussed and voted on text-by-text using the above procedure. Between the second and third hearing, MPs would not be able to make motions on the texts. The voting procedure is based on the one used by the previous Parliament when the first two amendments to the Constitution were made, said Lyuben Kornezov, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Amendments to the Constitution.

At a hearing heldon  January 27 by the constitutional commission, Justice Minister Georgi Petkanov disagreed with a proposed constitutional amendment that would assign the drafting of the judiciary budget to the justice minister, the daily newspaper Trud reported.  At the same hearing, Plamen Kirov, the president's legal affairs secretary; Petkanov and Prosecutor General Elect Boris Velchev opposed MPs' full immunity and said it would be enough to guarantee that MPs would not be prosecuted for their statements and voting in Parliament, nor arrested without Parliament's approval.

Former Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov described the proposed constitutional changes as cosmetic and said the UDF would not support them, Standart News reported.