UK, Spanish Embassies Said to Have 'Pressured' Bulgarian Courts

Former Parliament Chair and current arbitration judge Ognyan Gerdzhikov has slammed the UK and Spanish Embassies for allegedly trying to influence the outcome of commercial disputes. Photo by BGNES

Representatives of the Embassies of the UK and Spain in Bulgaria are reported to have exerted pressure on Bulgarian courts in two separate trade disputes.

The “lobbying” of diplomats in favor of foreign companies has been reported by the Bulgarian private channel bTV, which claims to have documents clearly demonstrating that the two foreign missions intervened in judicial disputes in Bulgaria.

The first case concerns a dispute between a Bulgarian and an UK firm in the Arbitration Court of the Bulgarian Industrial Association. The Bulgarian companies has sued the British entity claiming that it has not been paid for work it completed under a contract.

During the proceedings, the Court has received a letter from the UK Ambassador in Sofia Steve Williams that is reported to have “explained” the meaning Article 307 of the Bulgarian Commercial Act.

“It was signed by the UK Ambassador who tried to explain how a certain text from the law should be applied in favor of the specific UK firm. And he expressed a desire to meet up with me. Such a meeting is totally unacceptable, especially since I was one of the judges working on this case,” the Court Chair, Ognyan Gerdzhikov (former Chair of the Bulgarian Parliament in 2001-2005) is quoted as saying.

“Several days later I got a phone call from an associate of the Ambassador. As much as I tried to be polite, I was rather harsh. I said that it is absolutely unacceptable that a representative of a diplomatic mission, especially such an old democracy, would try to influence a court decision like that,” Gerzhikov revealed.

In a statement submitted to bTV, the British Embassy in Bulgaria states that it is in charge of defending the interests of UK firms, and that the respective legal, if interpreted in a certain way, could raise serious questions about the security of commercial contracts in Bulgaria in a time of economic crisis.

“Let them defend their interests in any other way – but they must keep their hands off the courts. Nobody has the right to intervene there,” says the Arbitration Court Chair.

The suit between the Bulgarian and British firms in question was eventually settled out of court but bTV has also reported a second case of “scandalous” diplomatic pressure.

The Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain is said to have tried to influence a case of the Arbitration Court of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A Bulgarian company is in a dispute with a Spanish firm over the money for a joint construction project, and the suit is still in progress.

“We have a clause in our contract which says that if there are any disputes they must be taken to this court because things there are settled much faster than elsewhere,” says Mihail Tanchev, a manager of the Bulgarian firm which has not been named.

The suit, however, dragged on for two years until a hearing of the arbitration court in March 2010, when one of the judges withdrew from the case claiming to have been the target of “unprecedented diplomatic pressure.” The “attempt to influence the proceedings” on part of the Spanish Embassy in Sofia was recorded in the court protocol, and new judges took up the case.

Tanchev says the second time the entire panel of judges backed out over a second attempt to pressure the court on part of the Spanish Embassy.

Spain's Ambassador Jorge Fuentes is quoted as having denied any personal involvement in the case. He has said that the commercial representation of the Spanish Embassy in Sofia has sent a letter to the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry saying that the court panel was not formed in a just way. Thus, a new panel was appointed, and any interference on part of the Spanish mission ended.

His Excellency is quoted as saying that all foreign missions try to protect the interests of their countries' firms if they decide that there are violations.

“They can't afford to do this. They shouldn't even think about that. I am startled that they are doing it, and these are countries with established democracies. This is something that is particularly shocking to me.

The bTV channel also cites a letter of the lawyers of the Spanish firm in question, which claim that their clients sought help from the Spanish Embassy because they felt discriminated against by the proceedings of the arbitration court.

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