Bulgarian lawmakers will debate at second reading a controversial bill on the fourth amendment to the Constitution.

The change in the basic law provides for financial decentralization of municipalities, abolishes the obligatory army service and strip magistrates of their immunity.

The most controversial part of the legal amendments envisage the establishment of an inspecting body within the Supreme Judicial Council, which will monitor the work of the whole judicial system.

It will be headed by a chief inspector on a five-year mandate and members on a four-year mandate each. They will be rotated every two years. The head and members of the inspecting body will be elected by the Parliament, the draft law says.

Bulgaria's chief prosecutor and the heads of the two supreme courts lashed the secret constitutional policy of the Parliament and the planned fourth amendment to the country's basic law. Yet, President Georgi Parvanov has supported it calling it a precondition for the country's EU entry.

Amendments to Bulgaria's constitution in line with EU standards were high on the list of what the country should do after its accession to the bloc.

In order to be adopted at second reading, the draft constitutional amendments should be supported by at least three-fourths of all 240 MPs.

If the bill is finally approved, this will be the fourth time of amending Bulgaria's basic law since its adoption by the Grand National Assembly in 1991.

The latest amendment to Bulgaria's Constitution raised a lot of controversy last year. It was passed in March only to be snubbed as ambiguous by Brussels and subsequently repealed by Bulgaria's Constitutional Court.

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