Council of Europe's GRECO: Bulgaria's Judicial System Remains Vulnerable to Undue Influence

Bulgaria has a reasonably good legislative framework and many institutions and tools to deter corruption, yet there have been no people convicted of high-level corruption, according to a report of the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).

GRECO's Fourth Evaluation Round, adopted on March 23-27 and published on Wednesday, is highly critical of Bulgaria's performance in the sphere of fighting corruption and conflict of interest.

GRECO's Fourth Evaluation Round, launched on 1 January 2012, deals with "Corruption Prevention in respect of Members of Parliament, Judges, and Prosecutors."

Since joining GRECO in 1999, Bulgaria has been subject to evaluation in the framework of GRECO's First (in September 2001), Second (in December 2004) and Third (in October 2009) Evaluation Rounds.

The main objective of the latest report is to evaluate the effectiveness of measures adopted by the authorities of Bulgaria in order to prevent corruption in respect of Members of Parliament, Judges and Prosecutors and to further their integrity in appearance and in reality.

Bulgaria is to determine the relevant institutions/bodies responsible for taking the requisite action to implement the recommendations.

Within 18 months following the adoption of the report, Bulgaria is to report back on the action taken in response to the recommendations contained in it.

The report labels oversight bodies as "paper tigers, denied the power to conduct substantive checks."

"Scrutiny, if it is effected at all, is cursory and their role has been mainly confined to placing the declarations of private interests, incompatibilities and assets of MPs, judges or prosecutors in the public domain. In the absence of any thorough checks and...