EurActiv

Filiz Hyusmenova, a Bulgarian liberal lawmaker, has alerted the European Parliament of government attempts to replace key officials in the national administration with political supporters.

MEP Hyusmenova warned the assembly in Strasbourg about what she described as attacks on the independence of three key regulators – the Commission for Protection against Discrimination (CPD), the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) and the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC).

All three regulators, which are supposedly independent from political influence, were being crippled by the government's attempts to control them, Hyusmenova said.

The ruling GERB party of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov is reportedly making "shock" changes to the independent regulators, which the opposition denounced as a further step towards imposing political control over the country's administration, writes Dnevnik, EurActiv's partner publication in Bulgaria.

Hyusmenova, who is also vice-president of the DPS party (Movement of Rights and Freedoms), a centrist formation representing the Turkish and Muslim minority in Bulgaria, warned that the changes are a threat to the democratic functioning of an EU member state and to citizens' rights.

"The government in Bulgaria is introducing legal changes which will deeply affect the country's democratic system. These measures are presented by the government as cost-cutting. But they will in fact cripple the three regulators," Hyusmenova told the European Parliament.

She urged the Parliament and the European Commission to take action against this violation of EU norms and citizens' rights.

Speaking to EurActiv, Hyusmenova explained that a draft law foresees that the national parliament will elect a new reduced team at the regulatory agencies two weeks after the entry into force of the legislation, despite the fact that the bodies have been elected for a six-year mandate.

"What does it mean?" she asked, before declaring that the government obviously wants to control those bodies by appointing trusted people without waiting until the present members' mandate expires.

Asked if the changes to the regulators were part of a wider plan to fill the administration with people faithful to the ruling GERB party, Hyusmenova said: "In almost all decentralised local cells of the ministries, in almost all regional directions, the civil servants have been replaced" as a result of what she described as "legal and half-legal ways" to dismiss employees.

Attempts to crack down on the independence of Bulgarian national radio and Bulgarian national television should be seen in the same context, Hyusmenova added.

According to press reports, the government is seeking to merge the two broadcasters, which would open the door for staff cuts and firing independent-minded editorialists and journalists. The advisory body supervising the national broadcasters has already been slashed from nine to five members.

Opposition parties claimed that the changes would undermine media freedom.

EurActiv has asked the Bulgarian government to comment on the criticism and will publish its reaction as soon as it receives it.