EC Pressures Bulgaria over Direct Election of Top Magistrates - Report

Bulgaria's Justice Minister Diana Kovacheva keeps getting letters for Brussels over the flawed judicial reform. Photo by BGNES

The European Commission has insisted for the third time in two months that Bulgaria's top judicial body, the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) be elected directly, a report says.

According to a report of the Capital Daily, EC Secretary-General Catherine Day has sent letter to the Bulgarian authorities, as represented by Justice Minister Diana Kovacheva, that they need to introduce a direct election of the VSS members by the end of 2012 for those members of the Council that are elected by the judiciary, i.e. the so called magistrate quota.

Day is in charge of the EC reports monitoring the post-accession progress of Bulgaria and Romania in the field of judiciary reform, and combating organized crime and corruption under the so called Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, publishing progress reports twice a year since 2007.

According to the letter of the EC Secretary-General sent to Sofia on April 24, 2012, the introduction of the direct election of the members of the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council, a body that has often been criticized for spurring scandals or failing to crack down on scandalous issues, by all members of the judiciary will be crucial for a more tangible judicial reform.

Catherine Day insists that the direct election of the VSS members must be employed in time for the formation of the new Council in the fall of 2012.

The Capital Daily notes that during the latest debate on the Bulgarian Judiciary Act Justice Minister Kovacheva rejected the direct election of the country's top magistrates "without being able to privde a specific reason" for that, mentioning primarily technical difficulties.

At present, the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council is elected by delegates representing the judges and prosecutors working in the judicial system. The latest changes to the legislation are said to provide for greater representation, with each voting delegate representing five judges or prosecutors instead of ten, as was the case earlier.

The latest amendments also introduce a more thorough procedure for the election of those VSS members that come from the so called parliamentary quota, and are elected by the Parliament.

In the fall of 2012, the Bulgarian Parliament is to elect 11 members of the VSS, and the judiciary will be entitled to elect the other 11 under the existing procedures.

The new Supreme Judicial Council will have to make key choices by electing Bulgaria's new Chief Prosecutor (current Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev's seven-year term is set to expire), the Director of the National Investigation Service, the head of the Supreme Court of Cassassion, as well as a large number of judges and prosecutors.

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