site.btaDeputy Prime Minister Kuneva:CVM Won't Be Lifted in 2015

Deputy Prime Minister Kuneva:
CVM Won't Be Lifted
in 2015


Brussels, December 5 (BTA) - Deputy Prime Minister Meglena
Kuneva on Friday said that the European Commission's Cooperation
and Verification Mechanism won't be lifted in 2015. She was
speaking to Bulgarian media in Brussels after a meeting with EC
Vice President Frans Timmermans.

Kuneva voiced a hope that the Mechanism was lifted before the
term of the current European Commission. On Thursday, EC
President Jean-Claude Juncker said that the Mechanism will be
lifted by 2019.

Kuneva said that a EC mission is due to arrive in Sofia next
week ahead of the next CVM report in January. She said that
Bulgaria will have to commit to concrete deadlines about reforms
before this mission. Kuneva commended Bulgaria's legislative
framework. She said that the country should honour its
commitment for a new Penal Code although a draft code was
rejected by the judiciary. She said that if the adoption of a
new Penal Code was met with strong professional opposition,
urgent changes should be made only to bottlenecks in the Code.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that Bulgaria should press ahead
under the CVM, because Romania has managed to make progress,
which means that the mechanism is working.

Kuneva placed importance on the way Bulgarian laws are drafted
and enforced. She voiced a conviction that the yardstick should
be the country economy and if benchmarks are based on the
economic effects of the judicial reform, home security, law
drafting and enforcement, then Bulgaria may very quickly become
a different country. VI/PP


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