site.bta Justice Minister Ivanov: One Can not Talk about Torpedoing the Judicial Reform

Justice Minister Ivanov: One Can not Talk about Torpedoing  the Judicial Reform

Sofia, July 8 (BTA) - One can not talk about political
qualifications, such as torpedoing, and this overexcitement
seems preliminary, Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov commented in
front of journalists his views regarding the ad hoc
parliamentary committee's Tuesday decision to reject his
proposed constitutional amendments, related to the Judiciary.
Ivanov was adamant that everything will be done so that the
judicial reform is carried out and that the important decision
is yet to be made by Parliament.
     
The Justice Minister said that the committee's Tuesday meeting
showed how the political forces, and especially the opposition,
can not bring arguments against the changes, adding that the
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) neither has a position nor has
made any proposals. Ivanov recalled how the socialists had
supported the judicial reform strategy in Parliament, which
included dividing the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), but
somehow now they can not find the motivation to vote for it.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ivanov said in a televised interview that
the SJC has become a vehicle of trading in legal cases. There is
 "a very powerful mafia - the mafia of eternal judicial chiefs,"
 Ivanov told Nova Television.

He lamented the fact that proposed constitutional amendments
which envisaged reforms in SJC were rejected by an ad hoc
parliamentary committee on Tuesday. He sees a need to change the
 structural pattern of SJC, which is sometimes referred to as
"the government of the judicial system." The structural
adjustment will lead to personnel changes, he added.

"It is my job to get the judicial reform through," Ivanov
declared.

Although the proposed amendments were rejected by the committee,
 they will be discussed by the full Parliament, but even then
the parliamentary minority will not support them, Ivanov
predicted. "In this Parliament, unfortunately, it is political
deals that matter, not arguments," the Justice Minister said.

He noted that of all convicts in all prisons in Bulgaria, only
16 have been convicted of corruption-related crimes, and none of
 them was a senior public officer or politician.

If the SJC's division and the judicial reform do not happen via
legislation, it would undoubtedly mean that there is a
government crisis, said Reformist Bloc (RB) Co-Floor Leader
Radan Kanev, commenting the parliamentary committee's rejection
of the proposed constitutional amendments.

Kanev noted that the Constitution depends on the opposition
parties. It is not right for the majority to make the State's
stability dependent on the opposition, he said.
     
Asked whether the RB will reconsider their participation in
government if their Minister Hristo Ivanov's ideas do not go
through, Kanev said that the results of the vote in Parliament
must be seen first before the Judiciary Act can be discussed,
explaining that in no way has he lost hope for support on first
reading. Talks with the opposition are yet to start, he said.

All possible compromises have been included in the package
proposed for first reading in Parliament, Kanev noted, adding
that the responsibility of those parties claiming to be
Euroatlantic, such as BSP, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms
and ABV, is huge.