Excerpt:
Responding to objections from various faiths, parties in Bulgaria’s Parliament are revising amendments to the Religious Denomination Act before the bill is put to a second reading.
This emerged after a meeting between two parliamentary groups, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
The ban in the initial draft on foreigners and people with foreign religious qualifications conducting religious services, unless they had permission from the religions directorate, has fallen away. Instead, foreigners with short-term residence, of three to six months, will be allowed to conduct services, while a foreign cleric coming to Bulgaria for a day or two would have to notify the religions directorate.
In contrast to the first-reading version, the second reading draft will allow anonymous foreign donations to religious groups.