The position of the Council of Ministers is constant - the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is one and indivisible, and its unity is of particular importance for our society. This was stated by Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev at the beginning of the hearing before MPs regarding the case of registration of the Bulgarian Old-Style Church, quoted by Dariknews.bg.
"I had the opportunity to confirm the position of the Council of Ministers three times, two of which were during meetings with Patriarch Daniil. There is no way that a caretaker government can be expected not to confirm previous decisions and opinions of the Council of Ministers. I leave aside my personal convictions," Glavchev said.
"We will be talking about a decision of the independent Bulgarian court and it is difficult for the executive branch to take a position on another authority, but at the same time it is about the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which is also independent, but has a special place in the Constitution and the Law on Religions", the Prime Minister pointed out and began with the chronology of events, explaining to the deputies that they are about 10 pages long and they can interrupt it at any time if they have questions.
"The so-called Bulgarian Orthodox Old Style Church has been active in our country for more than 30 years. It dates back to 1993, when the first house of prayer of the Old Style believers was opened in Sofia - the "St. Spas" chapel and in Greece under the name "Triadic Bishop Photius". Gradually, the Bulgarian Orthodox Old Style Church expanded its activities and opened parishes in Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Pleven Sandanski, etc. The parishioners are around 2000-3000. Since 1993, however, with the emergence of a bishop, a new, parallel, church community has emerged, which, despite its limited scale, duplicates its spiritual life and structures of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Glavchev pointed out.
He explained that the first attempt to register the Bulgarian Old Style Church with the Sofia City Court dates back to 2011. According to him, the role of the executive branch in this proceeding is reduced to providing an expert opinion to the "Religious Denominations" Directorate of the Council of Ministers, if such is requested by the Registry Court and in February 2012 there is a negative opinion. In the period 2011-2013 the court of three instances refuses to register the old-style church.
"The next stage is to refer the matter to the European Court of Human Rights on August 28, 2013 after the refusal to register with a complaint for a violation of Article 9, which is for freedom of thought and religion in connection with Article 11 and Articles 13 and 14 of the Convention on Human Rights. It was sent to the Bulgarian side in September 2017. The opinion of the Bulgarian government at that time was that the complaint constitutes an abuse of the right to appeal, since from a legal point of view the complainant church does not meet the criteria under the Law on Religious Denominations", specified Prime Minister Glavchev and presented chronologically the normative details surrounding the case.
"We have reached the decision of the Supreme Court of Cassation, which has complied with the decision of the Court in Strasbourg. What is requested is to take individual measures and approve a new application for registration or to resume the registration proceedings. These measures are directed at the Bulgarian courts and we are currently witnessing their implementation by the court. The second order of the European Court of Human Rights is to take general measures and quickly adopt the relevant legal changes," he also pointed out.
Glavchev confirmed on January 7 to Patriarch Daniil the opinion that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is one. The BOC, according to the Law on Religious Denominations, is the expression of the traditional religion in Bulgaria - Eastern Orthodoxy, and it is led by the Holy Synod and represented by the Bulgarian Patriarch, who is also the Metropolitan of Sofia.
Immediately after Glavchev's hearing, which is the first item on the agenda, the parliament will vote on first reading on bills amending and supplementing the Law on Religions. There are three of them and they were submitted by Kostadin Kostadinov, Boyko Borisov and Atanas Zafirov, respectively. The work of the parliament will also continue with the first vote on a bill on the collection of revenues and the implementation of expenditures in 2025 until the adoption of the Budget for this year. There will also be a hearing of the Chairman of the State Security Agency Plamen Tonchev, the Director of Military Intelligence Gen. Venelin Venev and the Chairman of the DAR Antoine Gechev on the situation in the Middle East and Syria in particular. The heads of the services will familiarize the deputies with the measures in case of possible future refugee waves from Syria, the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan and other centers of instability.