site.btaCouncil on Ministers Hosts Students Discussion to Mark Upcoming Anti-Corruption Day

Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, who held a discussion with students to mark the upcoming International Anti-Corruption Day marked on December 9, said that there are two major coordinate axes in Bulgaria. One of them signifies the pro-Russian or pro-European direction for the country's development, while the other one signifies the level of tolerance towards corruption, the government's press centre reported on Thursday.

The discussion hosted by Denkov at the Council of Ministers was also attended by Minister of Justice Atanas Slavov, Slavov's Chef de Cabinet Borislav Ganchev, and Mihail Boyadjiev, senior legal consultant for the Basel Institute on Governance.

The Prime Minister presented to the students Bulgaria's progress in the fight against corruption in recent months and stressed that intolerance of fraud and abuse is not an ideological issue but a pragmatic approach that leads to a better life.

The Prime Minister said that one of the main tasks of this government is to carry out a constitutional reform together with the Parliament. He added that there has been significant progress on that front. Denkov said that he strives to work in the pro-European and anti-corruption direction, because he believes that this is the way to make Bulgaria a better place for living.

Minister Slavov noted the lifting of the monitoring for Bulgaria as evidence of the progress made in recent months on the rule of law. He also said that the new Counter-Corruption Commission will be established by the end of 2023 in line with the Anti-Corruption Act adopted in October.

Boyadjiev presented the results of a survey conducted by the Basel Institute earlier this year, according to which, cases related to the Magnitsky sanctions and corruption scandals in the highway and road construction sector are the most prominent examples of corruption in Bulgaria. It also shows that Bulgarians currently have very low trust in the prosecution and consider the judiciary to be the sector most plagued by corruption.