The Interior Ministry was ready to accept what were called "far-reaching compromises" on its proposed amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, Bulgarian daily Dnevnik said on December 18 2009.

At a hearing of the parliamentary judiciary committee, Deputy Interior Minister Veselin Vuchkov said the ministry was willing to accept much of the criticism the proposed amendments have drawn and the change the proposal accordingly, but only after first reading in Parliament.

The main stumbling block has been the provision for direct access to communication databases, which Vuchkov said the ministry was not willing to drop.

He said that instead, he would seek to increase mechanisms of control and safeguards to prevent abuse of the database access.

The ministry would be willing to drop the lowering of the bar for crimes for which electronic communication data could be used to two years, Dnevnik said. Instead, it would want to add a list of specific crimes, such as kidnapping, to the current requirement of serious crime, or a minimum of five years imprisonment.

On two other points of criticism; a missing timeframe by which data that had been accessed should be destroyed and a mechanism to provide information about access to communication data to those whose data had been access, the ministry was willing to make necessary changes.

Veselin Metodiev, MP for the Blue Coalition, said he would support the proposed amendments if sufficient guarantees against abuse would be in place. At each use of the access appropriate documents could be signed so liability would be clearly established, Metodiev said.

Alexander Kashumov of the Access to Information Programme welcomed the concessions of Interior Ministry, but said he continued to oppose direct access to data.

Earlier in the week, it became clear the current proposal could count on the support only of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov's ruling party GERB and ultra-nationalists Ataka, after the Blue Coalition, Bulgarian Socialist Party and Yane Yanev's Order, Law and Justice party announced their opposition to the proposals.