The unprecedented public hearings of the nominees for members of the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) from the parliament quota, held yesterday, did not meet the preliminary expectations that the elections would have the capacity to change the status quo in the country’s judicial system.
The latter became clearly visible in the very beginning of the hearings, held at the National Assembly. Most of the questions to the nominees were predominantly connected with the possible ideas of legislative amendments, which are out of the Council’s direct scopes. What is more, concrete and personal questions seemed to be unwelcome, according to a remark by the National Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee chairperson Mrs. Iskra Fidosova. In addition, the SJC candidates completely ignored the questions formed by the representatives of the civil society, answering to only 3 of 108 of them. Instead, all of the nominees preferred stressing on well-known problems of the judicial system like the work-load of the magistrates, their career growth and the deficit of publicity.