site.btaGERB to Back Bills on Judiciary, to Propose Revisions before Final Vote

GERB–UDF will support all three bills revising the Judicial System Act, MP and Parliament Deputy Chair Raya Nazaryan (GERB-UDF) announced before an extraordinary meeting of an ad hoc parliamentary committee on legal affairs. Speaking to journalists at the National Assembly, Nazaryan said her group plans to submit changes between the first and second readings of the bills, while preserving the goals proposed by the authors.

She explained that the party has certain concerns regarding the wording of the texts rather than their overall intent.

Nazaryan noted that all three draft bills of amendment "contain constructive proposals" aimed at ensuring a transparent procedure for the election of members of the Supreme Judicial Council and its Inspectorate. The proposals also seek to regulate how the current council should continue functioning until a new body is elected.

She welcomed the timely consideration of the legislation, even by an ad hoc committee, emphasizing that the key priority is establishing a procedure to enable properly assessing the professional and ethical qualities of candidates.

"It is our responsibility to determine how candidates will be heard and to select the most competent individuals," Nazaryan stated.

She also stressed that legislation concerning the current members of the Supreme Judicial Council should not restrict the institution to the point of hindering its work.

At the same time, Nazaryan criticized the short timeframe between the submission of the bills of amendment and the convening of the committee, saying it had not allowed enough time to gather opinions from legal professionals.

"We hope such expert opinions will be available before the second reading, so that we can work with concrete texts and avoid any interference by the legislative branch in the independence of the judiciary," she added.

What is in Progressive Bulgaria's amendments

The amendment to Bulgaria’s Judicial System Act, proposed by Progressive Bulgaria, aims to introduce stricter safeguards against the concentration of influence within the judiciary and to reform the procedures for selecting members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and its Inspectorate, according to the proposal available on Parliament's website.

A key element of the proposal is a "cooling-off" rule that would bar individuals who have held top judicial positions over the past seven years - including presidents and deputy presidents of the supreme courts, chief prosecutors and their deputies, as well as acting office holders - from becoming members of the SJC. The measure would significantly narrow eligibility for senior magistrates, although some exceptions apply, such as the current President of the Supreme Court of Cassation, who is a member ex officio.

The draft also seeks to ensure that future appointments to the SJC and the Inspectorate are based on transparent, objective, and predictable criteria, including professional qualifications, experience, public reputation, and adherence to judicial ethics. Parliament would first adopt the rules for evaluating candidates before elections take place.

Under the proposal, the SJC would be required to organize elections for its professional quota within one month of the law entering into force. Voting would be conducted using paper ballots at regional court locations, a provision that has raised concerns among some magistrates about potential risks to ballot secrecy in smaller jurisdictions.

The draft maintains that only MPs may nominate candidates for the SJC and Inspectorate, although they may endorse individuals proposed by legal academia, professional bodies, or civil organizations.

It also introduces significant limits on the current SJC’s powers, restricting appointments, promotions, and transfers of magistrates, as well as changes to judicial leadership, except in cases necessary to ensure the functioning of the system.

Additional provisions require the Judges Chamber of the SJC to review the legality of judicial secondments to the Supreme Administrative Court and potentially revoke improper assignments. The plenum of the SJC would gain authority to appoint acting heads of the Supreme Administrative Court and the Supreme Cassation Court, and the Prosecutor General, with a six-month limit on acting mandates.

The Minister of Justice would also be granted the right to challenge decisions of both the plenum and the two chambers of the SJC.

Finally, the draft repeals earlier plans to expand the number of judges in the Supreme Administrative Court, arguing that Bulgaria already has one of the highest numbers of supreme court judges in Europe and that the increase was unjustified.