Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor Met with EC First Vice-President Timmermans

The topic of the underpriced apartments acquired by high-ranking Bulgarian officials was a subject of the talks in Brussels on 15th of April between Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov and First Vice-President of the European Commission (EC), Frans Timmermans. The two discussed the progress of the judicial reform and the issues that were still in the process of resolution. The talks also focused on the implementation of the recommendations the EC made in its January 2017 and November 2018 reports under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), writes BNT. 

Sotir Tsatsarov informed Frans Timmermans about the ongoing investigations in Bulgaria related to the fight against corruption and organised crime.

They also discussed the work of the Specialised Prosecutor's Office following the expansion of its activities to include corruption offenses committed by senior public officials.

After the meeting, Timmermans said he was encouraged by the fact that the Chief Prosecutor had promised implementation of the recommendations under Co-operation and Verification Mechanism. In his words, Bulgaria has made progress but there is still a tremendous load of work to do.

Commenting on the controversy of apartments acquired by high-ranking Bulgarian politicians at below-market prices, Timmermans said he and Tsatsarov discussed this issue. I understand that all these cases are being investigated. We should not comment on cases under investigation and will just wait for the results of the investigation.

Timmermans also commented that European Commission officials dealing with Bulgaria and Romania were very well informed about everything that is happening there. According to him, the dialogue with the Bulgarian authorities on the...