(ANSA) - SOFIA - Bulgaria's parliament overturned the presidential veto on anti-corruption law, clearing the way for the creation of a special unit to investigate individuals occupying high public office as well as assets and conflicts of interest. Last week President Rumen Radev vetoed the law, passed by parliament, saying the bill failed to offer the means to effectively investigate corruption networks. Radev acted only a day after Sofia assumed the six-month, rotating presidency of the EU for the first time.

The European Commission has repeatedly rebuked Bulgaria for failing to prosecute and sentence allegedly corrupt officials.

The motion to overrule the veto was passed by 146 votes in the 240-seat parliament, bringing together lawmakers from the ruling center-right GERB party, allies in the nationalist United Patriots formation and opposition deputies from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Volya. The Socialists voted against.

(ANSA).