Judge Picked to Chair Bulgaria's New Judicial Council

Judge Sonya Naydenova (first on the right) was elected to chair Bulgaria's new Supreme Judicial Council. Photo by BGNES

Sonya Naydenova, a judge from the Sofia City Court, has been elected as the Representative (technically the chairperson) of Bulgaria's newly inaugurated Supreme Judicial Council (VSS).

Naydenov, who was elected to VSS from the quota of the Bulgarian Parliament, and was nominated for the Council by the ruling center-right GERB, was nominated to chair the Supreme Judicial Council by Georgi Kolev, the head of Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court, who headed the Sofia City Court up until last year.

In bidding for the position, Naydenova beat former GERB MP Yuliya Kovacheva, and Kalin Kalpakhiev, a judge from the Sofia Appellate Court.

Bulgaria's newly elected Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) formally assumed office on Wednesday amidst serious doubts about where its members are capable of turning around the notorious problems at the Bulgarian judiciary.

The 22 newly elected VSS members started their five-ear terms in office; they are to be working alongside the Chairperson of the Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS) Lazar Gruev, the Chairperson of the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) Georgi Kolev, and the Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev, who sit on the Council ex officio.

For the first time this year, the candidates for Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council were subject to public hearings which in some cases required 24-hour-long debates.

The Bulgarian Parliament elected 11 VSS members and the judiciary elected another 11; of those, 6 were elected by the judges; 4 – by the prosecutors; and one – by the investigators.

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