site.btaUPDATED Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Objects to Proposed Budget Cuts

Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev has sent a letter to the chairmen of the 47th National Assembly and the Committee on Budget and Finance, expressing a negative opinion on a proposal to amend the draft budget, the prosecutor's office said on Thursday. Two days ago, the prosecution service was informed that a significant reduction in the budget of the judiciary was proposed.

The planned reduction is by 20 million leva (5.6 per cent) compared to the one proposed by the Council of Ministers.

According to the Prosecutor General, this is in no way dictated by considerations related to the activities of the prosecution service and jeopardizes the implementation of its activities, such as the remuneration of the experts employed by the prosecution service, the costs for translations of cases, and the costs for network and information security, Geshev writes.

The planned budget cuts would be inadmissible interference by the legislature in the work of the prosecution, and pose a serious threat to the rule of law in view of the inevitable attempt to control the prosecution service by making its funding conditional on its reform and restructuring, Geshev wrote.

The prosecutor General’s arguments against the proposed budget were largely repeated in a declaration adopted later on Thursday by Plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council. A majority of 18 members voted to send the declaration to Parliament, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Venice Commission and the Council of Europe, and two voted against.

Boyan Magdalinchev of the SJC pointed out that the proposed budget cuts do not indicate good institutional work and relations between the institutions. "All state resources are directed against the prosecutor's office. We hope that things will change in the second vote," he said.