site.btaContinue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria Unveil Bill Revising Judicial System Act

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) on Thursday unveiled their bill revising the Judicial System Act, intended to ensure a transparent election of a Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and a SJC Inspectorate. The news was broken to journalists in Parliament's lobby by CC-DB Floor Leader Nadejda Iordanova.

"The highlights of the draft legislation include limiting prosecutorial checks which have been much abused in recent years," said Atanas Slavov MP of CC-DB. He specified that these checks will be dramatically reduced so as to ensure their subjects' right to defence. "We also propose the setting up of a mechanism for the release of the prosecutor general initiated by a broader quorum," the MP said. He added that the bill provides for a "depoliticized election" of SJC and SJC Inspectorate members.

"Within the effective constitutional framework, we increase the weight of the vote of the judges elected by judges to the SJC," Slavov said. He explained that there will be a "dual majority" when a vote is taken at the SJC Judges Changes: a majority of the judges and a majority of all members. "Political independence and neutrality will be mandatory for the SJC members of the parliamentary quota," the MP said, specifying that, to this end, such members should not have held office in the legislative or the executive branch of government and should have been part of political parties' leadership or occupied any other political positions. 

"Within two weeks after the entry into force of the amending act, the SJC will be obliged to elect a new acting prosecutor general and a new president of the Supreme Administrative Court because the present holders of these offices are illegitimate," Slavov said.

"We gave the Government eight months to initiate such a bill," the MP said, adding that a large part of the provisions were elaborated at the Ministry of Justice last year.

Slavov was Minister of Justice in the Nikolay Denkov Cabinet between June 2023 and April 2024.