The council of the ruling coalition will discuss the Government's reshuffle on April 22 2008, the Government’s website said. The leaders of the three ruling parties – the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – will meet at 10am.

According to Dnevnik daily, BSP leader and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, NMSP leader Simeon Saxe-Coburg and Ahmed Dogan, leader of MRF, will meet in the late hours of April 21 to agree on the changes that will be announced to the media after the meeting of the coalition council the following day.

The negotiations started on April 18 2008, after the three parties formed contact groups on Stanishev's request. On April 11 2008, Stanishev asked for the changes after Parliament rejected a motion of no confidence filed by the opposition on grounds of the Government's alleged ties with organised crime.

The motion led to the resignation of Interior Minister Roumen Petkov on April 13 2008, after NMSP MPs abstained from voting.

Although, at present, Bulgarian media can only speculate on personnel changes, from what the contact groups have officially said, after the first round of negotiations Bulgaria is to have a deputy prime minister without a portfolio, who will personally supervise and control the spending of European Union funds.

Another expected change is for the Government to cut the number of deputy ministers by 20 per cent, as well as the number of deputy regional governors. Other speculation suggests that some of the ministries, such as state administration or disaster management, would be restructured and will instead have the status of state agencies.