site.btaBulgarian, Dutch PMs Discuss Sofia's Progress in Implementing Rule of Law on Path to Schengen Accession

The Netherlands Government is following closely the progress that Bulgaria is making in applying the rule of law and is inclined to lay the matter of Bulgaria’s Schengen accession before the country’s parliament when Bulgaria shows more results in this area, it transpired from a telephone conversation between Prime Ministers Nikolay Denkov of Bulgaria and Mark Rutte of The Netherlands.

The Dutch PM lauded Bulgaria for the steps already taken in the right direction, especially regarding the powers of the prosecutor general.
In a related development, a report presented to the MPs in The Hague on Thursday, the Dutch Cabinet called attention to two recommendations contained in the European Commission Rule of Law Report on Bulgaria of July 5, 2023, namely about the structure and complement of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and of the SJC Inspectorate, and about corruption prevention and counter-corruption.

Denkov assured Rutte that next week the Bulgarian Parliament is expected to adopt revisions to the Counter-Corruption and Criminal Assets Forfeiture Act by which the Commission for Anti-Corruption and Criminal Assets Forfeiture will be reformed. Amendments to the Constitution concerning the SJC are planned to be passed on first reading by mid-October 2023. Bulgaria will then inform the European Commission and all EU Member States of the progress achieved in fulfilling the recommendations of the July 5, 2023 report.