Council of EU: Choice of New Judicial Council Is Test for Progress in Bulgaria

Dropping out the monitoring mechanisms on Bulgaria and Romania would only take place after their recommendations are implemented, the Council of the European Union says in a report.

Judicial reform and the fight against corruption have been key issues for Bulgarian society over the past ten years, according to the reports assessing progress under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), dealing with judicial reform, the fight against corruption and, concerning Bulgaria, the fight against organized crime.

The report of the Council of the EU says that the CVM applied on Bulgaria and Romania since 2007 continues to play an important role in achieving progress and its dropping out would take place only after the implementation of the their recommendations.

Transparency in the election of members of the new Supreme Judicial Council and the forthcoming contest for chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court are part of the tests for Bulgaria, according to the document.

Another recommendation for Bulgaria is to eliminate the high - level corruption and serious organized crime, also to improve the work of the prosecution.

Furthermore, to set up an effective anti-corruption authority and adopt and implement a reform of the law on public administration to strengthen the internal inspectorates in the public administration.

"The Commission's 2015 and 2016 CVM reports were able to acknowledge important steps taken by the Bulgarian authorities to put the reform process back on the agenda."

According to the data, in 2016 Bulgaria made additional significant progress in the implementation of the judicial reform strategy, while implementation of the national anti-corruption strategy still remains in an early stage.