Bulgaria's Socialists Demand Veto on Upped Speed Limit

Politics » DOMESTIC | June 12, 2012, Tuesday // 19:57
Bulgaria: Bulgaria's Socialists Demand Veto on Upped Speed Limit Bulgarian drivers will be enjoying a speed limit of 140 km/h (87 mph) on highways. Photo by BGNES

The opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party has cried foul after the ruling center-right party GERB's MPs raised the country's highway speed limit by 10 km/h to reach 140 km/h.

"We will ask the President to impose a veto on this section of the Roads Act which provides for a speed limit of 140 km/h," Socialist MP and ex Interior Minister Mihail Mikov told reporters in Parliament.

He moved to describe the amendment adopted by the Bulgarian Parliament Tuesday as "dangerous".

Earlier on Tuesday, Bulgaria's MPs sealed a legislative amendment raising country's highway speed limit from 130 km/h to 140 km/h (87 mph).

The legislative amendment was already adopted at first reading in April regardless of the adamant criticism by both the rightist and the leftist opposition.

The amendment was sealed Tuesday after an hour of heated debates with 83 votes in favor (primarily of the ruling center-right party GERB), 15 votes against, and 1 abstaining.

The head of Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency Lazar Lazarov has told reporters in Parliament that the law will not provide a 140 km/h limit for all highways in Bulgaria but only for some of the sections that are actually fit for such speed. These will be the brand-new highway sections and the ones that have been rehabilitated.

The MPs also voted to make the speed limit for Bulgaria's so called "high-speed roads" (four-lane roads that do not meet all requirements for highways) 120 km/h.

In fact, the latest amendments to the Roads Act adopted Tuesday introduced the high-speed roads as a separate category of roads in Bulgaria's road network.

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Tags: highways, speed limit, high-speed roads, highway speed limit, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Hemus Highway, GERB, Blue Coalition, BSP, Bulgarian Socialist Party, Mihail Mikov

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