A draft bill for the nationalisation of companies that have been sold off by governments over the past 18 years was tabled in Parliament by ultra-nationalistic Ataka party on March 5 2008, Focus news agency said.

The draft bill envisages the nationalisation of all companies previously owned by the state, as that was the only way to compensate the state, which was “illegally and immorally” deprived of their ownership, Ataka MP Pavel Shopov was quoted as saying.

He cited the sale of Bulgarian Telecommunication Company and Kremikovtzi steel mill as examples of such privatisations and warned that the forthcoming privatisation of state shipping company Navibulgar would follows the same model.

“We do not expect Parliament to adopt the draft bill but we want to start a discussion on the issue,” Shopov was quoted as saying by Focus news agency.

“We are not holding on to the world 'nationalisation' and our idea has nothing in common with communist style of nationalisation,” he said. The draft bill provides for compensations only for those who have made investments in the companies that will be nationalised not the owners.

The bill is scheduled to be debated by Parliament on March 6.