Third Day of Hearings for Candidates to the SJC Prosecutors’ College Before Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee

The parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee is now in its third day of hearings with candidates for membership of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). Today, MPs are questioning nominees for the Prosecutors’ College. Ivo Nikodimov is following the proceedings.

Prof. Ekaterina Salkova: “The judicial system is in a profound crisis, with entire institutions at odds with one another. In recent months, there has been unprecedented confrontation between the Supreme Court of Cassation and the former acting Prosecutor General.”

Andrey Yankulov: “Ultimately, whichever of us you choose will begin a series of fairly urgent initiatives to address the career progression of magistrates, which has been stalled until now. This is, of course, something to be welcomed. However, the most important thing, in my view, is to answer the question of what the institutional environment within the Prosecutor’s Office – the institution that is the subject of today’s meeting – currently looks like. Clearly, we are at a critical moment for the justice system.”

Prof. Veselin Vuchkov: “If, say, within one or two years, or halfway through a potential term of office as members of the Supreme Judicial Council, another case emerges in the public eye similar to those of 19 years ago, Martin Bozhanov, known as ‘The Notary’, over the past four or five years, or Pepi the Euro and the ‘Eight Dwarfs’ club, the work of the future Supreme Judicial Council could only be judged a failure. The main problem is the excessive and prolonged delays in competitive selection procedures. This is the root cause of many of the problems, including the uneven distribution of workloads, the issue of secondments, tensions among colleagues and pay disparities.”

Prof. Ekaterina Salkova: “I cannot deny that the judicial system is facing a very serious institutional crisis. What I would like to point out here is that, in my view, recent months have seen unprecedented confrontation between the Supreme Court of Cassation and the then acting Prosecutor General. This confrontation has further eroded public confidence in the judicial system. The decline in the authority of the judiciary inevitably has an impact on crime prevention and, consequently, on citizens’ behaviour.”