The the EU Petitions Committee has asked the European Commission (EC) to start a preliminary investigation on the tip-off that vehicles owned by donors to Bulgaria's Interior Ministry do not get stopped by traffic police.

The information is part of a written response to a petition by a Facebook group calling for support for Konstantin Ivanov, the police officer who unveiled the umbrella policy of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry towards traffic violations committed by its donors and was subsequently forced to resign after 20 years on the job.

"The Petitions Committee will continue reviewing your petition as soon as it obtains the necessary information," the response signed by Erminia Mazzoni, the Chair of the Petitions Committee reads.

"Following the refusal of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office to initiate pre-trial proceedings on the case on the grounds that the direct supervisor of Ivanov had denied the existence of such a list, we are left with the hope that Brussels will reveal the truth about the scandalous donations to the Interior Ministry and the patent case of conflict of interest," said Petar Penchev, the creator of the Facebook group.

Reminding that EC Spokesperson Mark Gray recently labeled all types of donations to the Interior as unacceptable, Penchev explained that the corrupt practice was worrying because it endangered the lives of ordinary drivers and pedestrians due to the unpunishability of political oligarchs.

"We also hope that through this investigation European institutions will manage to expose the other illegal donations to the Interior about which Bulgaria was alerted after the disclosure by the honorable police officer who eventually left office "of his own accord", Penchev added.

Last week, the Interior Ministry was revealed to have received over BGN 12 M in donations in 2011.

As of September 1, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry can no longer receive donations from private individuals and private companies.

The order of Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, signed on August 15th, however, has some exceptions – municipalities, State institutions and companies, international organizations and foreign countries can still make donations.

In July, The European Commission criticized the corrupt donation practice in its report on Bulgaria under the cooperation and verification mechanism, causing Prime Minister Borisov to pledge that the occurrence would be eradicated.

Tsvetanov, however, specified that donations would be phased out gradually, rather than rooted out at once.

At the beginning of August, the European Commission Spokesperson Mark Gray, once again, condemned the practice of Bulgaria's Interior Ministry of accepting donations.

"Each donation to the Interior Ministry is unacceptable, be it money or any kind of material valuables", Gray told Bulgarian Sega daily on August 10.

Tsvetanov initially refused to admit that the practice was reprehensible, saying that the Interior had not entered into any commitments in exchange for the donations which were thank-you gifts for a job well-done.

In early August, Sega daily wrote that the Interior had received the stunning BGN 15.5 M in donations in the first half of 2011 from a host of controversial natural and legal persons.

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