References: Constitution, Chapter 8, is devoted to the Constitutional Court.

See also Law on the Constitutional Court, [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: The Constitutional Court has the power to review laws passed by the Parliament.

References: The Web site of the constitutional court: [ LINK ]

Article 70 reads: "A Member of the National Assembly shall be immune from detention or criminal prosecution except for the perpetration of an criminal offense, and in such case the permission of the National Assembly or, in between its session, of the Chairperson of the National Assembly, shall be required. No permission shall be required when a Member is detained in flagrante delicto; the National Assembly or, in between its session, the Chairperson of the National Assembly, shall be notified forthwith. (2) (new, SG 27/06) No permission for initiating criminal prosecution shall be required, where the Member of the National Assembly has given his consent thereto in writing. "

References: Constitution, Art. 70.

Peer Review Comments: In law, all Bulgarian citizens can be investigated and prosecuted. There are clear procedures for lifting the immunities of members of Parliament.

Peer Review Comments: Yes, although Parliament needs to give permission to wave their immunity.

References: Law on Public Disclosure of Assets of High-ranking State Officials, Art. 2

References: There is no such law.

References: Rules of Organization and Procedure of the National Assembly

References: Law on the Public Disclosure of Assets of High-ranking State Officials, Art. 7

References: Not applicable. There are no such regulations.

Using company cars and other facilities by MPs often happens: In fact one MP - Volen Siderov - was involved in a road rage scandal while driving a car that belonged to a TV station. The part of the story involving the car's ownership attracted almost no public attention or criticism.

References: Gifts and hospitality offered to MPs are generally not given public attention. There are few media reports on such issues. Monitoring of gifts in the assembly is rather lax. In fact no MPs have been reprimanded for taking gifts.

Using company cars and other facilities by MPs often happens: In fact one MP - Volen Siderov - was involved in a road rage scandal while driving a car that belonged to a TV station. The part of the story involving the car's ownership attracted almost no public attention or criticism.

Peer Review Comments: No, there is no control over the gifts and vehicles that members of Parliament get or use.

References: The practice is very new - generally, the State Audit Office, which is supposed to monitor the asset declarations, has no sufficient prerogatives to do it. In particular, this office has no independent investigative powers. Yet, it could examine documentation and spot obvious discrepancies between declarations and publicly available registers.

Peer Review Comments: Yes, they are. The National Audit Office can investigate the facts and and if there are any violations, give the cases to the special services

References: Law on the Public Disclosure of Assets of High-ranking State Officials, Art. 6

References: According to the written order of the chairman of the National Audit Office, access to MPs disclosure records is provided within one week.

Peer Review Comments: They are online.

References: The cost is reasonable and may involve only the cost of the paper, printing, etc.

Peer Review Comments: They are online

References: There is no specific legal text providing for access to records of the legislative processes and documents. However, according to the Access to Public Information Act such information is considered public. According to the Rules of Organization and Procedure of the National Assembly, protocols from parliamentary sittings and drafts of laws and decisions are published on the Web site of the National Assembly.

References: Access to Public Information Act, Art. 40, [ LINK ];

Rules of Organization and Procedure of the National Assembly, [ LINK ]

A project to make the Official Gazette an online edition is in its final stages of realization.

References: Records are available online.

Peer Review Comments: Records are available online.

Peer Review Comments: Draft laws are not always openly published, and this encumbers wider public participation and debate. One of the biggest scandals was the discussion of the draft text of the law on judiciary at the national magistrates conference. After the discussion, the magistrates found out that they have not been given the latest version of the draft law.

References: Records are available online.