Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor challenges Parliament’s Rules of Procedure in the Constitutional Court

The Prosecutor General has requested the Constitutional Court (CC) to declare provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly (Article 25 and part of the text of Article 86), unconstitutional, the Prosecutor’s Office said on March 23.

The request points out that Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly contradicts the principle of separation of powers (Article 8 of the Constitution) and the independence of the judiciary provided for by the Basic Law (Article 117, paragraph 2 of the Constitution) because it impermissibly "extends" the constitutionally provided control of the legislature over the judiciary.

The provision of Article 25 of the Rules of Procedures of the National assembly stipulates that at least once every 3 months, the National Assembly's Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs should hold a discussion with the participation of the Prosecutor General on the application of the law and the activities of the Prosecutor’s Office and investigative bodies. Specific topics that could be discussed - legislative changes, resourcing, results in the fight against crime, interaction with investigative bodies, etc. - are also mentioned.

Legislative oversight of the activities of the judiciary (in particular the Prosecutor’s Office) as regards the implementation of the ;law is carried out through the annual hearing and adoption by the National Assembly of the annual report of the Prosecutor General and through other summary and analytical reports on the activities of the Prosecutor’s Office in the application of the law, the fight against crime and the implementation of penal policy, different in time and/or content from the annual reports.

The provision of Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly creates an obligation for the Prosecutor General to appear before the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs "at least once every three months" to discuss topics outside the annual reports and, in some cases, even outside the competence of the Prosecutor General. This text of the Rules of Procedure in practice allows for discussion at any time, which makes it purposeless to really summarise information on the development of the crime situation and leads to unacceptable interference in the work of the Prosecutor’s Office.

Setting a time limit for discussion on the above-mentioned topics is excessive, goes beyond the system of control and restraint of the individual authorities and can be described as interference in the independence of the judiciary, the Prosecutor General points out. He wants to declare unconstitutional two more provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly - Article 86, para. 1 in the part "including the implementation of the recommendations of the National Assembly in the discussion of the previous report" and Article 86, paragraph 5, second sentence, according to which the draft decision of the parliamentary committee may also contain recommendations to the body whose activities are being discussed.

The Prosecutor General stresses that this provision again extends and supplements in an unacceptable way the powers of the National Assembly granted by the Basic Law. The equation of a judicial authority such as the Prosecutor's Office with bodies that are under direct parliamentary control is an unacceptable violation of the balance of powers and an unconstitutional intrusion by the legislature into powers granted by the Constitution to judicial authorities.

The effective fight against crime is a national priority and only cooperation between the three powers can lead to real protection of citizens' rights, but it must be built in accordance with the principle of separation of powers and with respect for the independence of the judiciary, the request to the Constitutional Court states.

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