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Diplomats encourage all Parliamentarians to seize this moment of opportunity to agree meaningful reforms: "As representatives of Bulgaria's EU partners we think all Parliamentarians, regardless of political affiliation, should seize this moment of opportunity to agree meaningful reforms. We believe these reforms are vital in order to ensure a real rule of law in Bulgaria and hence to tackle corruption and organised crime. They are also necessary to create the right environment for increased investment in Bulgaria including from the countries that we represent."

The Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) will conduct an election for a Supreme Court of Cassation President in a hearing on September 25, 2014. Two candidates were nominated for the position –Polina Panova, Supreme Court of Cassation justice and Head of the Criminal Division, and Tanya Raikovska, Supreme Court of Cassation justice and Head of the Commercial Division. Each of the two was proposed by five members of the SJC.

Bulgaria’s Parliament voted on January 29 to cancel the election of a new head of the inspectorate to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), ending the proceedings that have come under criticism from both the opposition and the judiciary.

Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council elected Hristo Dinev as the new Sofia City Prosecutor.Dinev, a former Sofia District Attorney was chosen over his contender Boyko Atanasov by 16 to 4 votes, while 3 magistrates abstained, reports Dnevnik.

The Ethics Commission with the Supreme Judicial Council found no evidence of violation of the Ethical code of the Bulgarian magistrates related to the real estate bargains between judge Veselina Teneva and her mother.

In this interview Mr Tsatsarov is discussing the development of the Bulgarian Prosecution so far and what lies ahead in the future. “Awakening” of the investigation services, completion of the structural reform and active participation of the Bulgarian Prosecution during the debates and processes of establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office are his priorities for 2014 (EPPO*).

We are not changing anything dramatically in the judicial system

The Deputy PM and Minister of Justice Zinaida Zlatanova undertakes in advance to neutralize the effect of the expected EC’s highly critical report on justice and internal affairs as announcing that the responsibility is common.  Besides that, she informed that the new Penal Procedural Code will be enacted by the National Assembly by the end of the year and commented that we are not changing anything dramatically in the judicial system; we are not changing the Constitution; there is no need to call a Supreme National Assembly. According to her EC’s report will outline the common responsibility of several governments, which have led the country in the last 18 months.  

The Minister of Justice, Zinaida Zlatanova, announced an idea that all legal entities enter the Trade Registry, and all registries be integrated within the Registry Agency.

Currently, jurors in Bulgaria are elected by the Municipal Councils and most often their candidacies are raised on the basis of a party’s quota principle following the balance of powers in the local governments. This is especially visible in the Sofia Municipal Council, which offers most jurors than other municipalities.

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER: More than 100 legislators, government ministers, journalists and officials were blockaded inside the Bulgarian Parliament building late Tuesday night and into Wednesday, as the 40th day of largely peaceful street protests in Sofia, the capital, turned confrontational.

14 leading Bulgarian NGOs have refused to discuss a reform of Bulgaria's Election Code with MPs, joining growing calls for a resignation pledge of Bulgarian PM Plamen Oresharski.

Mr William Mayer, representative of the American Bar Association (ABA) Center for Human rights, who is one of the international observers on the case of judge Miroslava Todorova is discussing the issues of the judiciary independence and the human rights protection in Bulgaria.

There are two main issues in Bulgaria. The first one is the possibility through the parliamentary quota that the Supreme Judicial Council be politically controlled. The second issue, which by the way can be observed in the whole region, is the lack of culture of integrity in the judiciary in historical perspective.

After the resealed recordings of conversation between Nikolay Kokinov (Head of the Sofia City Prosecution Office), Boyko Borisov (former Prime Minister) and Miroslav Naydenov (former Minister of agriculture and food) and the followed scandal, Kokinov resigned as Head of the Prosecution Office. But he also wants to resign as a magistrate and leave the system of judiciary.

Ms. Galya Gugusheva, an unsuccessful candidate for Constitutional Court Justice, was in no conflict of interest, found the Commission for prevention and ascertainment of conflict of interest. 

13 organizations, working in the field of minority integration, left the meeting of the Bulgaria’s National Council on Ethnic Integration Issues (NCEII) yesterday with the motives that the Council does not answer the social needs and must be either reorganized or replaced with а brand-new governmental structure.

Huge scandal broke out on the last weekly Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) session. The reason was the planned check of the random case assignment systems and practice in the Supreme Administrative Court.

The Supreme Judicial Council needs to evaluate the performance of almost 200 magistrates in 2013. It is impossible to gain personal impression of each of them, announced the Head of the Evaluation Committee with the SJC Ms. Milka Itova.

Deputy Prosecutor General Ms. Assya Petrova, who until recently supervised the case for a series of murders, called by the former Minister of Interior Tsvetanov the "Killers" case, will be head a national interdepartmental body, which will see to the legitimacy of the elections. 

The 66 years old Dimitur Tokushev is the new Chair of the Constitutional Court. He was elected yesterday on a session where 7 of 12 judges voted in favor of his candidacy, where seven is the mandatory minimum of votes. The vote is secret. 

Today the newly elected member of the Constitutional Court by the parliamentary quota, Grozdan Iliev, took his oath. The Chair of the Constitutional Court himself is expected to be elected by its members next week.

The Supreme Judicial Council dismissed Ms. Galina Toneva as Deputy Prosecutor General under proposition of the Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov. Seventeen of the SJC members voted “in favor”, two – “against”, and four abstained. Ms. Toneva was one of the three candidates for the highest position within the Prosecution Office and the only Deputy Prosecutor General from the team of Boris Veltchev (former Prosecutor General), who remained on the position after Sotir Tsatsarov took the lead of the Prosecution Office (apart from Boiko Naidenov, who under the law is a Deputy Prosecutor General as Head of the National Investigation Services). Ms. Toneva will remain a regular prosecutor in the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office.

Supreme Court of Cassation deputy president and chair of the Criminal Division Mr. Grozdan Iliev was nominated for Constitutional Court justice from the Parliament quota to take the seat which was left unoccupied by Ms. Veneta Markovska. The nomination was submitted on Monday at 17:58, at the very close of business when the term for nominations was to expire. Mr. Iliev was nominated by three Members of Parliament from the GERB party – Krassimir Tsipov, Dimitar Lazarov and Emil Radev as the official nomination of the GERB party.

The Council says that the total negation is non-structural and misleading both for the European Commission and the Bulgarian society. 

Last Thursday the government adopted legislative amendments in some acts, provisioning for a three-year deadline for the implementation of a system of the so-called electronic justice. 2016 at the latest citizens will have the opportunity to send crime signals electronically, summons will be sent via e-mail, judgments on civil cases will be serves as links.

Destroyed documents, checks on anonymous signals and disciplinary prosecution of prosecutors based on their decisions about cases on trial are part of the violations, because of which the Inspectorate with the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office was disbanded and the prosecutors working there – moved to other divisions, announced the Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov yesterday.

Ten Rule of Law NGOs presented a report setting out an appraisal of the state-of-play of judicial reform and the necessary further steps to be taken to the European Commission. Its purpose is to substitute the monitoring on the judiciary until the end of the year. Independence of the judiciary and ensuring efficient justice are viewed as the two key aspects of future reforms.

In a letter to the members of the Parliamentary Assembly to the Council of Europe a coalition of eight leading Rule of Law and Human Rights NGOs in Bulgaria share their assessment of the progress of the judicial reform in the country. The NGOs conclude that the principal challenge faced by the Bulgarian judicial branch is that its independence continues to be seriously undermined.

Yet in his first week as a Prosecutor General, Sotir Tsatsarov established what Boris Veltchev was talking about for years – that state controlling authorities are not used effectively, but rather all signals for offences are sent directly to the Prosecution office. Comment in this sense made Sotir Tsatsarov on his way to his first Supreme Judicial Council session as a Prosecutor General. Asked whether he acquainted himself with the Minister of Agriculture’s signal concerning the substitutes of the forest fund land tracts, submitted to the Prosecution office the day before yesterday.

“Bulgaria should definitely become part of Schengen, given that she fulfills all requirements. It is a fact that this is a matter of trust. Some countries have decided that they cannot trust Bulgaria. They have made a connection with the cooperation and verification mechanism”, said John Rowan, ambassador for Ireland in Sofia, in an interview for Dnevnik.

Former Head of the Regional Court in Plovdiv Mr. Sotir Tsatsarov took oath of office as the new Prosecutor General of the Republic of Bulgaria in the Court House in Sofia. Shortly after 12 o’clock he took the oath in the presence of the acting Prosecutor General Mr. Boiko Naidenov, former Prosecutor General Mr. Boris Veltchev, the Presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court, members of the Supreme Judicial Council, journalists. 

The Bulgarian Ombudsman Mr Penchev is obviously supporting the newly elected Prosecutor Generel. In an interview for BNT he stated that is pointless to dispute the proceed election of Prosecutor General. 

A week before the most important elections for the judiciary – the one of a new Prosecutor General, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has not entirely clarified what the voting rules would be.

0n December 10, The “Professional Ethics and Prevention of the Corruption” Committee at the Supreme Judicial Council will execute preliminary hearing of the three Prosecutor General Nominees. Candidates for the post are the current deputy Prosecutor General: Ms Galina Toneva, Mr Sotir Tsatsarov: Head of Plovdiv Regional Court and Mr Borislav Sarafov: Head of Appellate Specialized Prosecution Office.

Conditions for a debate are necessary, and the three candidates for Prosecutor General should present their concepts, stated the president. “Discussions, concepts, ideas and defense thereof are necessary. Only then we would be able to choose the right candidate”. The president called for the public attention to be placed upon concepts and answers to questions that need to be asked, rather than on individuals.

Deputy Prosecutor General Galina Toneva and the Head of the Appellate Specialized Prosecution Office Borislav Sarafov were nominated for the post of Prosecutor General on a Supreme Judicial Council session today.

The Union of Democratic Forces proposed the former President of the Republic (1997 – 2002) Petyr Stoyanov for a justice at the Constitutional Court. 

Candidate Tsatsarov for his nomination, the pre-election race and his work as a criminal judge, interview for “Trud”.  Commenting on the procedural rules, he says they do not necessarily predetermine who is to be elected, but what is rather more important are the candidates’ concepts and their ideas for a change.

Sotir Tsatsarov was nominated for the Prosecutor General post by seven members of the Supreme Judicial Council. Earlier the same day the election procedure was open and scandalous procedural rules were adopted. 

The Supreme Judicial Council postponed the issue of a formal statement in response to the allegations of the Minister of Interior with regard to recent court rulings on high profile cases.