site.btaJudicial System Act Revisions Pass First Reading at Committee Stage

Judicial System Act Revisions Pass First Reading at Committee Stage
Judicial System Act Revisions Pass First Reading at Committee Stage
First meeting of the parliamentary Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, Sofia, January 7, 2025 (BTA Photo/Hristo Kasabov)

At its first meeting on Tuesday, the 51st National Assembly Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee adopted on first reading three bills amending the Judicial System Act, moved by Vazrazhdane, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), and There Is Such a People (TISP).

According to Vazrazhdane's bill, a Plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) whose term in office has expired may not conduct a procedure and vote on nominations for a prosecutor general, a president of the Supreme Court of Cassation and a president of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC).

The draft legislation proposed by CC-DB provides that all SJC members and not just the members of the Prosecutors Chamber would be able to nominate a prosecutor general. If the President of the Republic refuses to decree an election of a prosecutor general, the refusal would be overridden by a majority of the SJC members elected from the magistrates' quota.

Another proposal by the same parliamentary group is to terminate the ongoing procedures for election of a prosecutor general and a SAC president. Acting prosecutor general Borislav Sarafov is the only candidate in the former procedure, and the election is due on January 16. None has yet stepped forward in the latter procedure.

TISP propose that the structure of the prosecution offices follow the structure of the courts hearing criminal cases. They also move that the prosecutor general's powers be limited to his or her powers as a stand-alone constitutional authority.

At the Committee meeting, caretaker Justice Minister Maria Pavlova argued that the judicial reform has been on for 30 years and each successive one is worse than the previous one because it is rushed and is done piecemeal. "I realize that a political decision must be taken so as to respond to certain public expectations, but this cannot be done by ways contrary to the laws," she pointed out. "The prosecutor general [election] procedure will not be completed on January 16, why that rush, nothing will be solved that way."

/LG/

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By 15:47 on 08.01.2025 Today`s news

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