site.btaEuropean Commission Makes Several Recommendations to Bulgaria on Rule of Law


The European Commission (EC) Tuesday published its 2025 Rule of Law Report, including a country chapter on the rule of law in Bulgaria. The country chapter looks at the actions taken by Bulgaria following last year's report and makes new recommendations to the country.
Regarding last year's recommendations, the 2025 report reads that Bulgaria has made no further progress on: taking steps to adapt the relevant legislative framework to avoid long-term secondment of judges to fill in vacant positions; taking forward the plans to adopt a mechanism for introducing safeguards in the appointment procedure of the Parliament-elected members of the Supreme Prosecutorial Council, ensuring their independence and taking into account European standards, particularly in view of the Council’s role in the appointment and dismissal of the Prosecutor General; ensuring an improved effectiveness of investigations and a robust track record of prosecution and final judgments in high-level corruption cases and some further progress on the institutional reforms of the Counter-Corruption Commission.
The EC finds that Bulgaria has made limited progress on improving the integrity of top executive functions, taking into account European standards, in particular by ensuring that clear integrity standards for the Government as well as an appropriate sanctioning mechanism are in place.
According to the report, the country has made some further progress on advancing with the work aimed at improving transparency in the allocation of state advertising, in particular with regard to state advertising contracted through intermediaries, such as media agencies.
On this basis, the European Commission advises Bulgaria to: take steps to adapt the relevant legislative framework to avoid long-term secondment of judges to fill in vacant positions; advance with the draft legislative amendments aiming at improving the functioning of the Inspectorate to the Supreme Judicial Council and avoiding the risk of political influence, in particular by involving judicial bodies in the selection of its members; re-initiate the process to reform the Supreme Judicial Council, in particular its composition, to ensure its independence and effectiveness; ensure a robust track record of investigations, prosecutions and final judgments in high-level corruption cases and take further steps to ensure the effective performance of the Counter-Corruption Commission; improve the integrity of top executive functions; complete the work aimed at improving transparency in the allocation of state advertising, in particular with regard to state advertising contracted through intermediaries, such as media agencies; and strengthen the quality of the legislative process by ensuring the use of public consultations and impact assessments for legislative initiatives by Parliament.
/PP/
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