The names of individuals who collaborated with the former secret services of Bulgaria will be published on the Internet, the Parliament decided Thursday.

The new law was passed at second reading and according to it the individuals' names will be published after they have been informed. They will have the right to appeal the accusations before the Supreme Administrative Court.

The individuals occupying public positions who have just a single file in the archives of former communist service Durjavna Sigurnost will also be revealed by the secret files commission.

In order for the names of former secret informers to be made public it will be enough for even a single report written by them to be available, documents of the operative that recruited them or registers of regular payments or one- or several-time payments.

Sixteen years after the collapse of the regime, Bulgaria has remained the only country among former Soviet satellites in failing to reach consensus on the issue of the secret archives.

In the beginning of June the government called for the entire opening of the security police archives, showing a major shift in the stand of the Prime Minister Stanishev, who initially urged that the files should be destroyed.

In 1994, the Bulgarian Parliament passed a law saying that the documents of the Durjavna Sigurnost were not "state secrets," but failed to assure access to the files.

Then in 1997, the first stable anti- Communist government created a commission to screen candidates for high state positions. The commission was closed in 2002 by the government of Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!