Bulgarian Parliament adopted the Offshore Act proposed by members of Movement for Rights and Freedom.

The Bulgarian Parliament adopted Wednesday the Offshore Act, motioned by two lawmakers from the liberal party DPS.

The Bill was proposed by controversial media mogul, Delyan Peevski, and by Yordan Tsonev, both Members of the Parliament from the liberal, predominantly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, DPS.

The new texts regulate the activities of offshore companies in Bulgaria and introduce a number of bans for their participation in important sectors.

These are listed as: public procurement, insurance, concessions, television and radio markets, gambling, credit institutions, pension funds and professional football clubs.

Fines in the Bill are capped at BGN 500 000. The deadline for its entry into force is 6 months after its adoption on Wednesday.

“All transactions that are not market ones and are suspicious will be levied on,” said Tsonev.

Delyan Peevski did not attend the debate and the vote. Back in June, his appointment for head of Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security, DANS, sparked mass antigovernment rallies in the country.

Peevski’s reinstatement as MP after his resignation from the Security Agency provoked a student occupation at Sofia University, which has been lifted as students and citizens continue to protest on the streets with demands for the resignation of the government.

Protesters have claimed that the Cabinet of Prime Minister, Plamen Oresharski, backed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms exemplifies in an acute form the deep influence of the so-called Bulgarian oligarchy on politics.

Since he was reinstated as MP, Peevski has not visited the Parliament even once. When approached by the media Wednesday, Tsonev said he did not know where his colleague was, stressing he was good lawmaker enough to be able to defend their joint motion on his own.