site.btaBulgarian, Portuguese Justice Ministers Discuss E-Justice

Bulgarian, Portuguese Justice Ministers Discuss E-Justice

Lisbon/Sofia, September 30 (BTA) - Portugal hails the impressive progress of the judicial reform in Bulgaria and the efforts of Bulgarian Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva toward introduction of e-justice, the Justice Ministry said Friday making public the details of a meeting between Zaharieva and her Portuguese counterpart Francisca Van Dunem.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on the highlights of the changes that are part of the judicial reform in Bulgaria and Portugal experience with introducing electronic judicial services since 2005.

Zaharieva said that if work on carrying through the reform keeps up its present pace, electronic justice should be available in Bulgaria by 2018. "Saving people time is what matters the most. Electronic services for individuals, remote filing of applications and checks on case file from one's home computer are the steps we are currently working on," the Minister said.

The two Justice Ministers concurred that the next European Commission monitoring report on Bulgaria's progress in reforming its judiciary and fighting organized crime and high-level corruption, will objectively assess the accomplishments and take this country closer to dropping the monitoring mechanism.

The two sides also discussed the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which Zaharieva signed on behalf of Bulgaria last April. Francisca Van Dunem stressed the importance her country attaches to the fight against violence over women and children and recalled that Portugal was the first country to sign the Convention.

Zaharieva said that studies in Bulgaria show one out of three women to be a victim of violence: physical, economic and psychological, and added that the issue must be addressed with the due seriousness.

During her visit to Portugal Zaharieva visited the Palace of Justice in Sintra, the Institute of Registries and Notaries in Lisbon and the women's prison in Tires. Three of the 425 inmates in the Tires penitentiary are Bulgarian and the Bulgarian Justice Minister had a meeting with them.