site.btaPACE to Close Post-Monitoring Dialogue, Putting Bulgaria on Equal Footing with Other EU Members

The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) proposed to close the post-monitoring dialogue with Bulgaria on Tuesday. This means that Bulgaria will only be monitored through the regular periodic reviews – just like all other EU member states, GERB-UDF Deputy Floor Leader and PACE Vice-President Denitsa Sacheva announced on Facebook on Thursday. 

The final decision on lifting the post-monitoring procedure will be taken on October 1 during PACE’s plenary session, she added. 

“This is an important moment for Bulgaria: after 26 years under post-monitoring procedure, our country is on the way to being recognised as a stable and equal member of the European democratic community,” Sacheva commented. 

Sacheva added that the Committee welcomed Bulgaria’s success in forming a government after years of political crisis, the reform of the Criminal Procedure Code, the constitutional amendments limiting the powers of the prosecution service and the measures against high-level corruption. 

The Committee recalled that judiciary reform is only partial, urging the Bulgarian authorities to complete it. It further emphasized the need to continue efforts towards the integration of the Roma population as well as the implementation of the European Court of Human Rights’s decisions, Sacheva added.