site.btaParliament Upholds Presidential Veto on Law Reviving Supreme Judicial Council Plenum

Bulgaria's Parliament on Thursday voted, 1-51 with 134 abstentions, to uphold a presidential veto on amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code that were adopted conclusively on February 1 and reinstated the powers of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) Plenum and of the Prosecutor General.

On February 12, President Rumen Radev vetoed the revisions in question which extended the operation of the existing SJC and its Plenum until the election, as provided by the revised Constitution, of a Supreme Judicial Council and Supreme Prosecutorial Council. The legislation was adopted despite the fact that the latest amendments to the basic law abolished the Plenum. Similarly, it restored powers of the Prosecutor General and his deputies of which they were divested by the Constitution as amended. The head of State argued that the relevant revisions to Criminal Procedure Code in practice "cancelled indefinitely the widely vaunted judicial reform through the recent amendments to the Constitution". He described this as "deliberate disregard of the supremacy of the Constitution and its immediate effect."

The Debate

Only opposition MPs spoke during the plenary debate on Thursday.

Tsveta Rangelova MP of Vazrazhdane: The entire legal community was flabbergasted by the adopted revisions. In Vazrazhdane’s opinion, the reasoning behind the President’s veto is entirely well-founded. [Addressing the ruling majority] Accept the President’s reasoning and move provisions that work.

Grozdan Karadzhov MP of There Is Such a People: The passage of the amendments in question bears witness to the incompetence of the ruling majority. They keep repeating the same mistake. Yet again, they amend a law through the transitional and final provisions of another law. The next enormous problem is that the Constitution is revised by these legal amendments.

Maya Dimitrova MP of BSP for Bulgaria: By these amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, the powerholders ignored the arguments of the opposition. All our arguments overlap with the reasoning of the President’s veto.

There Is Such a People Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov: At a Legal Affairs Committee meeting on Wednesday, the legal experts of GERB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms distanced themselves from the revisions. Clearly, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria alone are to blame for this nonsense. The ruling assemblage is legally schizophrenic.