Seeding change
President Georgi Purvanov has approved amendments to the National Centre for Agricultural Studies Act. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will submit the bill for parliamentary approval. This is aimed at implementing a new national strategy for development of sciences related to the agricultural sector.
The main change to the act is to the structure of the board of directors. It will include eight members from the board of directors from the National Centre, a representative from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and three university professors specialising in agriculture.
It will authorise the setting up of a National Bio-Technological Agrarian Park. Its main duties will be to develop policies and strategies for development of the agrarian sector; it will make scientific surveys in the field of selection, reproduction and bio-technologies; and will realise scientific products both at home and abroad.
Social welfare
In Ordinance 25 of February 7, the Cabinet approved rules for setting up the Social Welfare Agency. All dealings with officials of the National Social Welfare Service will be taken over by the Social Welfare Agency.
The institution will be answerable to the Minister of Labour and Social Policy and will implement state policy on social assistance. Its main activities will include the allocation of social and children's allowances, provision of social services, opening and closure of related institutions, preparation of summarised annual reports and studies connected to social assistance in the country, and preparation of projects for social welfare laws.
The agency is a juridical person with Sofia as headquarters and is financed from its own proceeds and from the budget.
Disaster plans
In ordinance 26 passed on February 7, the Cabinet approved the inclusion of a new chapter in the Rules for the Organisation and Prevention and Mitigation of Consequences from Calamities, Failures and Catastrophes, approved in 1998. The new provisions will allocate the allowances approved by the state budget for the respective year dealing with consequences of natural disasters and large-scale production failures. The resources may be disbursed in case of need of new engineering facilities aimed to avert immediate danger to human life, preventive deterioration of state-owned buildings, purchase of construction materials for such and for implementation of urgent programmes for improving readiness for, and dealing with, the consequences of failures, disasters and catastrophes.
The financing will be provided after the approval of an application to the permanent commission.
Wheels of change
The Cabinet has approved changes to the Charter of the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications. The document obliges the ministry to screen and analyse European and world transport-related trends and European technical standards and norms with the goal to apply them to individual types of transport. It will also be involved in the development of goals and priorities in the sector, as well as developing and updating transport strategies, principles, stages and directions of development of individual types of transport.
Investment rules
In ordinance 28, the Cabinet passed changes to the conditions and procedural order for review of investment projects applying for state loans or projects catering for state guarantee. It also canceled a 1997 ordinance regulating the state's credit and loan agreements.
Personal data
The Commission for Protec-tion of Personal Data promulgated changes and additions to its activity and administration Charter. It ruled that personal data is information about a physical person, which reveals his physical, psychological, mental, family, economic, cultural and social identity.
An administrator of personal data, according to the charter, is a physical or juridical person, as well as a state body, which defines the type of processed data, purpose of processing and the ways for their processing or protection. The data will be maintained in personal data registers either on paper or an electronic database.
Military matters
By Ordinance N-1 of February 5, the Defence Ministry has regulated the appointment, release, rights and conditions for paying extra-budgetary officials of the security services employed by the Military Police and Military Counter-Intelligence. They will be appointed to secure the order and security within the Ministry of Defence and the Bulgarian Army and will be part of the Military Police and the Military Counter-Intelligence.
President Georgi Purvanov has approved amendments to the National Centre for Agricultural Studies Act. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will submit the bill for parliamentary approval. This is aimed at implementing a new national strategy for development of sciences related to the agricultural sector.
The main change to the act is to the structure of the board of directors. It will include eight members from the board of directors from the National Centre, a representative from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and three university professors specialising in agriculture.
It will authorise the setting up of a National Bio-Technological Agrarian Park. Its main duties will be to develop policies and strategies for development of the agrarian sector; it will make scientific surveys in the field of selection, reproduction and bio-technologies; and will realise scientific products both at home and abroad.
Social welfare
In Ordinance 25 of February 7, the Cabinet approved rules for setting up the Social Welfare Agency. All dealings with officials of the National Social Welfare Service will be taken over by the Social Welfare Agency.
The institution will be answerable to the Minister of Labour and Social Policy and will implement state policy on social assistance. Its main activities will include the allocation of social and children's allowances, provision of social services, opening and closure of related institutions, preparation of summarised annual reports and studies connected to social assistance in the country, and preparation of projects for social welfare laws.
The agency is a juridical person with Sofia as headquarters and is financed from its own proceeds and from the budget.
Disaster plans
In ordinance 26 passed on February 7, the Cabinet approved the inclusion of a new chapter in the Rules for the Organisation and Prevention and Mitigation of Consequences from Calamities, Failures and Catastrophes, approved in 1998. The new provisions will allocate the allowances approved by the state budget for the respective year dealing with consequences of natural disasters and large-scale production failures. The resources may be disbursed in case of need of new engineering facilities aimed to avert immediate danger to human life, preventive deterioration of state-owned buildings, purchase of construction materials for such and for implementation of urgent programmes for improving readiness for, and dealing with, the consequences of failures, disasters and catastrophes.
The financing will be provided after the approval of an application to the permanent commission.
Wheels of change
The Cabinet has approved changes to the Charter of the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications. The document obliges the ministry to screen and analyse European and world transport-related trends and European technical standards and norms with the goal to apply them to individual types of transport. It will also be involved in the development of goals and priorities in the sector, as well as developing and updating transport strategies, principles, stages and directions of development of individual types of transport.
Investment rules
In ordinance 28, the Cabinet passed changes to the conditions and procedural order for review of investment projects applying for state loans or projects catering for state guarantee. It also canceled a 1997 ordinance regulating the state's credit and loan agreements.
Personal data
The Commission for Protec-tion of Personal Data promulgated changes and additions to its activity and administration Charter. It ruled that personal data is information about a physical person, which reveals his physical, psychological, mental, family, economic, cultural and social identity.
An administrator of personal data, according to the charter, is a physical or juridical person, as well as a state body, which defines the type of processed data, purpose of processing and the ways for their processing or protection. The data will be maintained in personal data registers either on paper or an electronic database.
Military matters
By Ordinance N-1 of February 5, the Defence Ministry has regulated the appointment, release, rights and conditions for paying extra-budgetary officials of the security services employed by the Military Police and Military Counter-Intelligence. They will be appointed to secure the order and security within the Ministry of Defence and the Bulgarian Army and will be part of the Military Police and the Military Counter-Intelligence.
