site.btaEuropean Commission: "Organised Crime Remains a Problem, Corruption Remains a Serious Issue in Bulgaria"

European Commission: "Organised Crime Remains a Problem, Corruption Remains a Serious Issue in Bulgaria"


Brussels, January 27 (BTA Correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - In
its latest Cooperation and Verification Mechanism report on
Bulgaria, which is due to be released on Wednesday, the European
 Commission found that organised crime remains a problem and
corruption remains a serious issue in Bulgaria.

The political uncertainties of the past year in Bulgaria have
not offered a stable platform for action, the report points out.
 

The Centre for Prevention and Counteraction of Corruption and
Organised Crime (BORKOR) does not seem to have delivered results
 in proportion to its costs, and in any event can only be seen
as providing analytical input, according to the report. It
recommends using to the full the useful experience developed by
civil society in the field of anti-corruption.

The European Commission sees public procurement as a high risk
area in terms of corruption. It adds that the necessary
legislative changes regarding conflicts of interest and illicit
enrichment have not yet been adopted.

According to the report, positive steps have been taken in the
General Prosecution to prioritise corruption, and there has been
 an increase in the number of cases initiated and the speed with
 which they progress. On the negative side, a few of these cases
 concern individuals in high-level positions, and cases
sometimes appear to stall for a substantial amount of time at
court level.

The model of specialised structures to fight corruption appears
to have seen some early results, but the test will come with
more high level cases and a development of operational
capacities, the Commission notes. It hopes that structural
changes to the State Agency for National Security (SANS) will
not undermine the effectiveness of this work.

Whilst the number of organized crime cases initiated by the
prosecution seems to have increased substantially in 2014, the
number of cases that have reached final conclusion remains low.
The intimidation of witnesses remains a serious problem. The
report says that despite substantial efforts, asset forfeiture
and confiscation still do not seem sufficiently targeted against
 organised crime groups. The Assets Forfeiture Commission
continues to achieve significant results, in spite of a
burdensome legal framework.

In its new report, the European Commission does not directly
recommend the adoption of a new Criminal Code, agreeing on the
need of swift amendment of parts of the existing Code on certain
 more urgent issues and on a broad discussion of the guidelines
for a new Code within a clear timeframe. The report finds an
acute need to modernize the Code in the area of the fight
against "high-level corruption", trading in influence and the
differentiation of active and passive corruption.

The work of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in 2014 continued
 to be subject to controversy, with several incidents in
relation to high-level appointments within the magistracy,
dismissals, the random case allocation system and tensions
between the SJC and its Civic Council, set up to represent civil
 society. Priorities for 2015 in this area include the election
of a Chief Judicial Inspector and rapid improvement of the
security of the random case allocation system and acceleration
of its modernisation.

The Commission welcomes the recently adopted judicial reform
strategy, proposed by the Ministry of Justice and finds
significant progress with the implementation of the action plan
put forward by the Prosecutor-General in 2013. Introduction of a
 solid methodology for the assessment of the workload of
magistrates is recommended.

* * *

"The present powerholders blocked (from the outside and from the
 inside) the functioning of the National Assembly and of the
Council of Ministers, and during the year in which we were part
of the governance, not much was done for reform in the
judiciary," opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Chairman
Mihail Mikov told a news conference here on Tuesday, commenting
on findings in the EC report on Bulgaria. "Usually, the
political entity mandated to form a cabinet bears the
responsibility until the elections, and the attempt to shift the
 responsibility to the present opposition does not match the
established model of governance and responsibility bearing in
Bulgaria," he pointed out. "We share the assessment in the
report regarding the recently adopted judicial reform strategy,"
 the BSP leader said.

"Thanks to the large parliamentary majority in support of the
judicial reform strategy, the findings in the monitoring report
of the European Commission have been abruptly softened, and this
 is already a success," Reformist Bloc Co-floor Leader and
Democrats for Strong Bulgaria leader Radan Kanev said in Vratsa.
 He added that seeking and achieveing the largest possible
majority for the conduct of the judicial reform will be sought
for amendments to the Constitution, where it is necessary, and
for amendments to the laws, where it is not mandatory. PK/LG
//