The first meeting of the Civic Council with the Supreme Judicial Council was held on January 14th. The Civic Council was presented by 15 of the 17 participating non-governmental organizations, including the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives. The Director of the Institute, Ms Gyaurova-Wegertseder pointed out that the current Supreme Judicial Council has not started as expected, but the establishment of a Civic Council is definitely a positive occurrence.
Priority tasks to be discussed are the problems related to the high workload of the magistrates, the random case assignment, as well as the different contests' procedure rules within the system. The Civic Council will closely watch if the Supreme Judicial Council is following and observing its Annual Work Program, which was defined as a highly ambitious one. The operating rules for the Civic Council are about to be presented till February 11, 2013. The rules will be composed by a special working group, where the Program Director of BILI Mr Hristo Ivanov is also participating.