EC CVM Report: Bulgaria Has Made Progress but Still More Work to Be Done

The European Commission presented on 15^th of November the latest report on steps taken by Bulgaria under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism. It states that our country has made progress on all recommendations but has not fully implemented them.

The 15^th of November report looks into the progress made to meet the 17 recommendations issued by the Commission in January 2017 CVM report. EC concludes that all these recommendations are being worked on, but none of them has been satisfactorily fulfilled, as the Commission says.

The report says that in the judiciary, important developments have taken place, notably with the election of a new Supreme Judicial Council, the impact of which should begin to show in the coming year. There are more cases of dealing with organized crime, but there is a need to work on amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure that are related to the fight against corruption.

The report notes that significant progress has been achieved on the recommendations set out in the January 2017 report, but the Commission cannot yet conclude that any of thembenchmarks are at this stage satisfactorily fulfilled.

In terms of fight against corruption, the recommendation is to set up an effective anticorruption authority, adopt and implement a reform of the law on public administration to strengthen the internal inspectorates in the public administration. The Commission expects a roadmap to be drawn up between all Bulgarian institutions involved in the fight against corruption. In addition, to address the weaknesses of the investigation. It expects more transparency.

First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said: "We have seen progress in many areas but there is still more work needed. Bulgaria has met or made progress on several of our recommendations, but not yet all. I count on the Bulgarian Government to implement all the planned reforms, and to avoid backtracking, so that we can move towards the goal of ending the CVM under this Commission's mandate."

Background

On 1 January 2007, the Commission established the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism to assess progress against the commitments made by Bulgaria in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime. The Commission reports on progress in these areas on a regular basis. The Commission issued its first report on 27 June 2007. The reports have benefitted from contacts with Member States, civil society, international organisations, independent experts and a variety of other sources. The Commission's conclusions and the methodology of the CVM have consistently enjoyed the strong support of the Council of Ministers.

The previous CVM report of January 2017 took stock of 10 years of the CVM, with an overview of the achievements and the remaining challenges, and set out the key remaining steps needed to achieve the CVM's objectives. The Commission made 17 recommendations that, if met, could be considered as sufficient to close the CVM, unless other developments were to clearly reverse the course of progress. The January report also highlighted that the speed of the process would depend on how quickly Bulgaria will be able to fulfil the recommendations in an irreversible way.

Today's report concerns the period since January 2017. It contains the Commission's assessment on how the Bulgarian authorities have followed-up on the 17 recommendations, and is complemented by a staff working document which sets out the Commission's detailed analysis, drawing on continuous dialogue between the Bulgarian authorities and the Commission services.

Чуйте последните новини, където и да сте!
Последвайте ни във Facebook и Instagram
Следете и канала на БНТ в YouTube
Вече може да ни гледате и в TikTok
Намерете ни в Google News