site.btaNational Ombudsman Manolova Negotiates Cooperation with Romanian Counterpart Ciorbea

NSofia, May 17 (BTA) - During a visit to Bucharest on Wednesday, National Ombudsman Maya Manolova negotiated cooperation with her Romanian counterpart Victor Ciorbea, Manolova's press office said. At a meeting in his office, Manolova said she would be happy to see their two institutions begin a partnership, exchange information and good practices similar to the governmental, parliamentary and presidential cooperation between Bulgaria and Romania.

"We will be very useful to each other, if we have a fast communication channel on common topics. Being neighbouring Balkan countries, we have many identical problems related to rights of citizens, the fight against monopolies, consumer protection and, of course, all the important legal protection topics as EU Member States," Manolova said.

As a next step in their cooperation, Manolova invited the Romanian Ombudsman to attend a high-level forum to be organized within the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency with the purpose of creating a Balkan network of ombudsmen, because ever more often they work on cross-border cases.

Manolova acquainted her Romanian counterpart with her institution's activity and congratulated Ciorbea on the constitutional complaint submitted by him in relation to his country's counter-corruption law. She added that she expects cooperation on important bills from him.

Manolova said that in her work she relies a lot on Romania's experience and practice. She gave as an example her team's work on a personal bankruptcy bill where they rely on Romania's recently adopted law on the matter, which, in her words, is generally regarded as the best in European legislation.

Ciorbea explained in detail how his institution works and what its powers are, noting that it is the only Romanian institution that can oppose ministerial decisions.