site.btaSJC Plenum Adopts Position on Draft Constitutional Amendments

The plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) adopted a position on the proposed constitutional amendments directly concerning the Judiciary. The position will be submitted to the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Constitutional Affairs Committee. The position is only about the texts of the regulations related to the Judiciary, the SJC said here on Tuesday. 

The protocol of the debates between the SJC members during the meeting will also be sent to the Parliamentary Committee. 

The SJC expressed reservations on some of the proposed amendments to the Constitution during an extraordinary meeting, also attended by Justice Minister Atanas Slavov.

SJC member Tsvetinka Pashkunova said that the general position expresses disagreement with the proposal to reduce the powers of the prosecutor general. Supervision, legality and methodological guidance are necessary powers of the prosecutor general, Pashkunova said. She pointed out that the SJC was against the change, according to which the prosecutor's office would only be involved in civil cases if they were about children or persons in need of protection.

The SJC is against its splitting into two councils, she said, adding that there are no motives for such a decision. According to her, reducing the number of prosecutors will block the work of the SJC's prosecutors chamber because there will actually be three of them, including the chief prosecutor.

According to her, there is no way for the ordinary National Assembly to make these changes. The same applies to the shorter terms of the presidents of the supreme courts and the prosecutor general, she added.

SJC member Atanaska Disheva in turn said that she agrees with some of what Pashkunova said about the powers of the prosecutor general. Disheva supports the SJC's division.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Justice Minister Slavov said that the SJC's position is critical to most of the proposed constitutional amendments. He said that he will present to the Venice Commission on Friday the bill, which will be reviewed by Parliament. "I will defend the main idea to divide the SJC into two councils," Slavov said. 

"The [judicial] self-government principle is completely applicable to judges. I hope that we will find in the Venice Commission's position a balanced approach to governing the prosecution service," he said. 

Slavov said he was surprised by the SJC monolithic position, which rejected the bulk of the proposed constitutional amendments. "This was not expected from this SJC," he said. 

According to the Justice Minister, a regular Parliament can adopt the constitutional amendments. There is no transfer of bodies from the Judiciary to other branches of government, he argued. The motives for the amendments are many, which also coincide with the conclusions made by the Venice Commission, Slavov said. 

Slavov said he believes that the ruling majority plans on putting the texts to the vote in Parliament by this year's end.