First Working Session of EU Justice Mnisters Held in Sofia

An informal council of Justice Ministers of the European Union is held in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia on 26^th of January. The first working session is dedicated to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), planned to be set up to investigate misuse of EU funds.

The structure of the EU-wide prosecution service is among the priorities for the Bulgarian Presidency. The Regulation for its establishment was adopted in October 2017. Currently, 20 countries arrre participating in it, but there is an option to include more.

The expectations before today's discussion were commented by Bulgaria’s Minister of Justice Tsetska Tsacheva and the European Commissioner for Justice Věra Jourová. As Jourová commented, the EC is closely following the situation in Romania where citizens are protesting against the new reform of the judicial system.

“It is of key importance for the Bulgarian presidency in the sphere of justice to ensure fast, effective and fair justice based on the mutual trust between the judicial systems of the different Member States, respecting the principle of the rule of law. The first topic, which will be the subject of a ministerial debate, is related tro institutionalisation and the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office. Today I look forward to the views on how the European Public Prosecutor's Office will interact with other EU services such as Eurojust, Interpol, OLAF”, Tsacheva said.

"The European Prosecutor's Office is a very important body that will start working from 2020 and will investigate annnd ppprocesute cases of fraud and corruption in the area of structural funds and the spending of European money. This body is very important for the European taxpayers. I am glad that Bulgaria is one of the countries involved in its establishment because it will improve the level of investigation of this type of crime in the country. We are following closely the situation in Romania. In recent years, we have seen very good progress, reforms are continuing, but we want to see reforms that will lead to greater independence and efficiency of the judicial system, as well as increasing people's confidence in it. What we are seeing now in Romania may be an alarming signal that things are not going in the right direction. That is why we are in dialogue with the Romanian government and we have sent them a letter”, Jourová said.

With regard to Bulgaria, the EU Justice Commissioner once again said that the EC expects visible results from judicial reforms and wants to see efficiency in the fight against corruption and organizsed crime. She added that she hoped to get support from member states for the idea of linking EU funding to the rule of law. According to her, this topic will be discussed at the time of both the Bulgarian and the Austrian presidencies.

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