23/10/2025 The National Assembly rejected the presidential veto on the amendments to the Law on the State Agency for National Security

The National Assembly rejected the presidential veto on the amendments to the Law on the State Agency for National Security and adopted them again at second reading. The amendments to the law were supported by 127 MPs, 92 were against, and one MP abstained.

On October 14, 2025, President Rumen Radev returned the amendments to the Law on the State Agency for National Security to the National Assembly for further discussion.

The amendments provide that the Chairman of the State Agency for National Security shall be elected by the National Assembly upon a proposal from the Council of Ministers. Instead of two, he will have three deputies. Until now, the head of the service was appointed by decree of the head of state.

The National Assembly finally adopted, on second reading, amendments to the Law on the Protection of Competition, related to the powers of the Commission for Protection of Competition. The amendments reflect the recommendations of the Competition Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, made during the accession negotiation process of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The Commission for Protection of Competition is empowered to conduct on-site inspections and sector analysis proceedings, similar to the on-site inspections carried out in sanction proceedings. On-site inspections shall be carried out only after judicial authorization by the Administrative Court of Sofia Province, which is subject to judicial review by the Supreme Administrative Court, as adopted by the National Assembly.

The Commission for Protection of Competition will be able to use external experts, both during on-site inspections and for the purposes of specific proceedings, the parliament decided. When it comes to on-site inspections, the experts used will be limited solely to computer specialists who will be engaged only in technical tasks, according to the amendments.

The bill introduces a new procedure, which is initiated at the request of a defendant in the proceedings who is willing to admit their participation in a cartel. There are also plans to introduce a so-called call-in option mechanism, which gives the Commission for Protection of Competition the right to request notifications in case of doubts about already concluded concentrations when the total turnover of the two companies exceeds BGN 25 million within six months of the transaction.

The draft law also provides for an amendment to the Electronic Communications Act, creating the possibility, where necessary, for the Commission for Protection of Competition to obtain data from companies providing public electronic communications networks and/or services for the purposes and objectives of proceedings under the Law on the Protection of Competition. Between the first and second readings, it was clarified that access would be limited to traffic data related to IP addresses.