site.btaPackage of Criminal Procedure Code Revisions Related to Recovery and Resilience Plan Discussed in Brussels

Bulgarian Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev conferred in Brussels with Declan Costello and Johannes Luebking, who are responsible for the Resilience and Recovery Plan (RRP) reforms in Bulgaria at the European Commission, Georgiev's Ministry said in a press release on Thursday. 

The sides discussed a package of draft amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code required for the third RRP payment to Bulgaria, which should ensure the effectiveness of criminal proceedings. The revisions introduce explicit grounds for a reversal of a prosecutorial warrant terminating a criminal proceeding and broaden the scope of a judicial review of a termination or suspension of prosecutorial investigation.

The draft legislation, prepared by the Justice Ministry in recent months, has already been adopted on first reading by the National Assembly. It also regulates victims' right to move for an acceleration of a criminal proceeding even before charges are brought and a possibility to split cases in the trial phase, executing judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The idea is to speed up investigations and prevent the termination of court proceedings in criminal cases by prescription. 

The European Commission expects the provisions to be passed as soon as possible.

Another item on Georgiev's agenda with the European Commission officials was the honouring of the commitment to enact regulation of lobbying by a draft Governance Transparency and Integrity Act, which has already been finalized.

The Justice Minister also conferred with Javier Zarzalejos, Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). They discussed reforms in the field of rule of law. The Spanish MEP was familiarized with Criminal Procedure Code revisions introducing additional protection for elderly and vulnerable users of social services. Zarzalejos assessed Bulgaria's efforts to boost protection for vulnerable persons as exceedingly serious and officered assistance in the form of good practices from various EU Member States in this area, the press release says.