Bulgaria's New Justice Minister to Observe 'Good Traditions'

Domestic | November 30, 2011, Wednesday // 15:45|  views

Diana Kovacheva takes the oath of office as Justice Minister. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's new Justice Minister, Diana Kovacheva, has said that she will put the focus on cooperation and maintaining constant dialogue.

"I hope I will meet and boost the high standards set by Popova," she said after Wednesday's oath-taking ceremony.

Kovacheva comes to replace Margarita Popova, who was elected Vice President on the ticket of the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB) in October.

In her address to Parliament, she vowed to abide by the principles of continuity, transparency and dialogue in her work.

She emphasized the importance of cooperation with the judiciary on the preparation of the much-anticipated new Penal Code and on the amendments to the Law on Forfeiture in favor of the State of Illegally Acquired Assets.

"Tomorrow I am meeting the members of the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) and I believe we shall be facing future challenges together," she noted.

Kovacheva and Popova commented on what they saw as appropriate measures to eradicate accusations of the sort "We catch them, they let them go", as stated by Prime Minister Borisov and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

"My job will be to back the judiciary, to work in a dialogue with them. I am counting on the fact that at the end of my term in office the judicial system will continue to be independent, what I believe it is now," Kovacheva declared.

Popova insisted that the entire work of the judiciary could not be subsumed under the above mentioned disparaging remark.

The new Justice Minister told journalists that her first job would be to meet the staff of the institution but declined to comment on potential reshuffles.

Kovacheva said her short-term priority would be December's visit of EU experts for the assessment of Bulgaria's progress under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).

She defined her main long-term goal as the continuation of the judicial reform, which she said required the acknowledgement and support of the representatives of the system.

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Tags: Diana Kovacheva, Margarita Popova, Justice Minister, judical reform, judiciary, Supreme Judicial Council, VSS, Transparency International, GERB, cooperation and verification mechanism

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