EC: Strong Institutions Should Back Up Bulgaria's Crack-Down on Assets

Analysts have commented that the new amendments to the law will practically make many people with illegal assets untouchable. File photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's law on asset forfeiture needs to be comprehensive, and backed up with strong institutions, if it is to be effective in dissuading organized crime and high-level corruption, the European Commission recommended in its interim report.

A new draft law for asset forfeiture was introduced into Parliament in January. The draft law sets out a regime for non-conviction based asset forfeiture. The bill focuses on targeting assets linked to organized crime activity.

The interim report points out that while the European Commission recommended the inclusion of the power for the Commission for the Identification and Forfeiture of Criminal Assets (CEPACA) to undertake pro-active asset verification of senior officials and politicians, this aspect does not seem to be pursued.

The EC report further comments:

"The draft law links investigations by CEPACA to criminal pre-trial proceedings initiated by the prosecution, allowing its work to start earlier than at present but the draft law also excludes the possibility for CEPACA to launch exofficio checks on the grounds of administrative infringements. It also raises questions about the operational independence of CEPACA."

Brussels stresses that the parliamentary discussions should be an opportunity to strengthen the draft to ensure an asset forfeiture regime which is comprehensive in scope, covers a sufficient timespan to be effective, and is backed up by strong institutions.

"The real impact of this future law will need to be assessed in terms of a further increase of decisions on confiscated assets and in terms of the independence of CEPACA," the report says.

Bulgarian authorities are likely to have the right to launch probes and seize following an indictment unexplained wealth, worth more than BGN 250,000, which has been acquired over the last ten years.

This is envisaged by amendments to the long-delayed bill authorizing widespread confiscation of illegally obtained assets, which were tabled in parliament by the Justice Ministry in the middle of January.

The majority in Bulgaria's parliament surprisingly failed to pass through the keenly expected bill in July last year, triggering fierce criticism in the EU and US, as well as suspicions of a set-up.

The draft law, initiated by Bulgaria's former Justice Minister and current Vice President Margarita Popova and widely touted by the ruling party as a powerful tool in crime and corruption combat, initially envisaged that the commission will have the right to launch investigations into incomes and acquisitions for the last twenty-five years and seize assets without conviction.

"The new version of the bill seeks to target not the ordinary citizens, but the members of organized crime groups," the recently appointed Justice Minister Diana Kovacheva justified the changes.

Analysts however have commented that the period of ten years and the condition for an indictment in place practically will make many people untouchable.

The Council of Europe's Venice Commission approved the previous, fifth version of the draft law in the middle of last year and recommended that it enters into force in 2012.

The commission called on Bulgaria's parliament to pass the new law by its summer recess. The European Commission, which sees the legislation as a powerful weapon in the country's corruption combat, had set the same deadline.

The current center-right government of Bulgaria, led by Boyko Borisov, was elected in the summer of 2009 on an anti-corruption mandate and on the promise to bring to justice those involved in huge-scale corruption schemes.

Some embezzlement trials against high-ranking officials have been widely considered to be a litmus test for the government's willingness to do so in practice, but most of them have ended with acquittals.

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