EC REPORT ON BULGARIA UNDER CVM WITH 17 NEW RECOMMENDATIONS

The European Commission issued on 25th of January its latest report in the context of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) applied to Bulgaria. After 10 years of the CVM, the Commission took stock of steps taken by Bulgaria on judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime, the achievements, the outstanding challenges and the steps still needed to end the CVM.

The 2017 Report shows that Bulgaria made additional significant progress in the implementation of the judicial reform strategy. Implementation of the national anti-corruption strategy still remains in an early stage. Overall progress in the past ten years has not been as fast as hoped for, and a number of challenges remain to be addressed. The new government will need to drive reform forward to secure irreversible results, the report says.

First Vice-President Timmermans said at the presenting of the report that in the past ten years Bulgaria had made important progress in carrying out CVM reforms, in particular as concerns legislative and institutional developments in judicial matters. However, monitoring of Bulgaria remains because, according to the European Commission the benchmarks are not met satisfactorily. EC sets new 17 recommendations before ending the monitoring of Bulgaria and Romania. The Commission reaffirmed their hope to do so under this Commission mandate, in line with the goal set by President Juncker.

EC wants to end the monitoring of Bulgaria and Romania in the field of justice and home affairs at the end of 2019, but it depends entirely on whether the country will implement the new 17 recommendations. The report said that the progress of our country over the past decade had not been as fast as expected and many challenges remain to be overcome.

The report reminds that the new government must continue the reform to ensure the achievement of irreversible results. As a positive development, the Commission considers the changes to the Constitution that would improve the functioning of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). Putting in place an Inspectorate to the Supreme Judicial Council has promoted good management of the judicial bodies and uphold integrity standards in the magistracy. However, its potential has not been used to the full, the report says.

The series of controversies and infighting that have marred the SJC over the past years have fuelled suspicion of external influence and affected public confidence in the judiciary.

The Commission reported progress in fighting organized crime, especially after the setting of the specialised court and the Asset Forfeiture Commission. According to the report, however, little progress was made in the fight against corruption. The anti-corruption strategy of the Cabinet from 2015 is still in an early stage, and the cases of high-level corruption are rarely ending in successful convictions. The next report on the progress of our country will be presented at the end of 2017.

Bulgaria’s outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Roumyana Bachvarova and ministers described the report as objective. Noting that the report makes analysis of the past 10 years, they said it outlined the efforts for reforms during the governance of the centre-right GERB as positive. They added that for the first time there were specific recommendations related to the 6 benchmarks regarding which the country had to take steps in order to end the CVM.

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