BULGARIA’S PARLIAMENT ADOPTED CHANGES TO THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM ACT CONCERNING JUDICIAL SELF-GOVERNANCE

On 26th of July, Bulgaria’s Parliament passed a second package of amendments to the Judicial System Act. One of the key changes concerns the judicial self-governance. The Minister of Justice Ekaterina Zaharieva said that the application of the new texts will be successful and will lead to obvious results for the magistrates and the public.

The amendments expand the powers at general meetings of the judges. They will participate in hearings of the candidates for chiefs of courts, give opinions on draft laws and adopt internal rules for the work in the relevant court.

According to the left-wing, the judicial self-governance will not work.

MP Filip Popov from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, this will lead to a bigger chaos, creating of lobbies and groups among judges in the system itself.

The justice minister Zaharieva has said that the criticism of the opposition is unjustified. She has noted that the recent studies show that the judges supported the judicial self-governance. “These are responsible people and I do not agree with the criticism that the general meetings will turn into the recruitment authority. Nothing bad that the judges will participate in the hearing of candidates for chiefs and deputy chiefs of courts,” she said and added that this in no way would supersede the powers of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), which is the body responsible for the recruitment.

This law will help good judges and prosecutors to have a good start in their career development, she said.

The MPs rejected a proposal, tabled by the Patriotic Front and the left-wing, which envisioned that members of the SJC would be automatically promoted to a higher rank after their terms on the SJC expired. The Parliament adopted that they would return to the same positions they had before becoming members of the SJC.

The Parliament rejected the idea about an independent deputy chief prosecutor on anticorruption.

The voting on more amendments to the judiciary system act continues.