site.btaBulgaria Can Fulfill All EC Recommendations on Judicial Reform by Year's End

Bulgaria Can Fulfill All EC Recommendations on Judicial Reform by Year's End

Brussels, June 19 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - Bulgarian Justice Minister Tsetska Tsacheva believes that by the end of this year her country can fulfill all recommendations contained in the European Commission's January report on the nation's progress in reforming its judicial system and fighting corruption and organized crime, which is being monitored by the Commission using the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).

Starting a two-day working visit to the Belgian capital on Monday, Tsacheva told Bulgarian journalists that a CVM mission of the European Commission was in Bulgaria earlier in June and was updated on the measures and deadlines for the implementation of the recommendations. She admitted that there is a delay in the planning of changes to ensure a more even distribution of the workload among judges and prosecutors. She expressed hope that the CVM will be dropped for Bulgaria by the end of 2018, as the January report hinted, but she noted that this depends on how successful Bulgaria is in carrying out the recommendations.

The Justice Ministry is working actively on future anti-corruption legislation, Tsacheva went on to say. "I have promised the government, and hence, the Bulgarian people and our partners, that the bill will reach the plenary chamber for a debate in September," she observed.

Tsacheva is in Brussels in connection with the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2018. Early in her visit, she met with representatives of the General Secretariat of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council to discuss the planning of the Presidency. The minister expects that the priorities of the EU presidencies of the Estonia-Bulgaria-Austria Trio will be endorsed on Tuesday by the EU General Affairs Council in Luxembourg, which will be attended by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

According to her, the Bulgarian EU Presidency will have three priorities in the field of justice: the creation of an EU prosecution service, the drawing up of a new justice strategy for the period 2019-2023, and the adoption of a regulation on the recognition and implementation of court decisions relating to child matters. Tsacheva expects that the EU prosecution service regulation will be approved by the European Parliament this autumn. All three priorities will hopefully be completed by the end of the Bulgarian EU Presidency, she said.

On Tuesday, the Bulgarian Justice Minister will meet with the leaders of the European Parliament Committees on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and on Legal Affairs. She will also talk with European Commission Deputy Secretary-General Paraskevi Michou.