MPs skip hearing on Lukoil, debate refinery bill instead

Parliament met for its scheduled Friday session, with a blitz control and regular parliamentary oversight listed on the agenda. From the rostrum, Speaker Raya Nazaryan announced that Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and Deputy Prime Ministers Atanas Zafirov and Grozdan Karadjov would miss the blitz control because of urgent official duties. She said the leaders are due to respond to oral questions at the Nov. 14 plenary as the session’s opening item. Ivaylo Mirchev of Continuing Change, Democratic Bulgaria, warned that a recent U.S. Treasury statement labeled the prospective buyer of Lukoil a Russian puppet, and he said that could prevent the Burgas refinery from conducting financial transactions within two weeks. His group sought a private hearing with the prime minister and the ministers of economy and energy and urged the speaker to call a presidential council; MPs took a 30-minute break at the behest of DPS-Novo Nachalo lawmaker Stanislav Anastasov.

When the session resumed, lawmakers rejected a PP-DB motion to summon the prime minister and the named ministers to debate the Lukoil matter. Attention then turned to a draft amendment to the law that regulates oil and petroleum activity, which is under consideration on first reading and lists Stanislav Anastasov, Pavela Mitova, Delyan Dobrev and Ivan Ibrishimov as sponsors. Members extended work hours until the opening item was finished and voted on, with parliamentary oversight rearranged afterward. Representatives of DSB pressed again for the prime minister and ministers to attend the bill discussion, prompting PP-DB to seek another break.