Bulgaria has made some progress but it is insufficient and the public trust has been undermined. Organized crime and corruption remain a problem. This is indicated in the latest EC report on the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification. "In any of the three observed areas: independence of the court, fight against corruption and organized crime, Bulgaria has not made progress in the last 18 months," said in an interview for Radio Bulgaria Ivanka Ivanova - Program Director of the Open Society Institute.

"We should not be fooled by the tone, it is important what the report says and how we compare to Romania. Let me recall that some EU Member States argued that they are waiting for a series of good reports on Bulgaria and Romania in order to take political decisions on our accession to other EU bodies such as the Schengen area. I think our membership in the Euro zone would also be dependent on the progress made. The fact is that Romania has received a very positive report, while Bulgaria, albeit mildly, notes a lack of progress. "

EC reiterates 16 recommendations to Bulgaria. Most of them almost literally repeat those from July 2012.

"First, there is a clear recommendation to enact the plan adopted by the National Assembly to update the Judicial Reform Strategy, which provides organizational safeguards for the independence of the court”, Ivanka Ivanova comments. “Having read the text, I remain convinced that the European Commission supports the separation of the Supreme Judicial Court into two separate chambers. One - to make decisions on the career development and recruitment of prosecutors, and the other - of judges only. The European Commission has stressed before that a major problem in Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court is the fact that prosecutors are party to the proceedings; they are involved in the appointment procedure and then the careers of judges. It is no accident that the Commission states in the first place the safeguards for judicial independence. With regard to the measures to combat corruption the report recommends more clarity as to the state agency that should bear the primary responsibility for the formulation of the government policy to combat corruption, to coordinate other bodies created in this direction. According to me, the most important recommendations are those related to the implementation of the first part of the plan to update the Judicial Reform Strategy, namely the separation of the Supreme Judicial Council into two chambers. The European Commission supports, in one of its previous reports, the recommendation that the members of the Supreme Administrative Court from the professional quota be appointed by direct elections of magistrates, which is already provided for in our law. In my opinion, these recommendations should be viewed as a priority. The government has no political credit to be wasted on other recommendations which are a result of the problems with judicial independence."

According to Ivanka Ivanova, even with a stable parliamentary majority, the opposition against achieving real independence of the Bulgarian court is so strong that we have yet a very long and tough battle to wage. Yet can these recommendations be implemented?

"There would be a real chance for this to happen, if we hear the explicit opinion of the largest ruling party in the coalition – GERB,” continues Ivanka Ivanova. “Minister of Justice Hristo Ivanov was left alone to negotiate in the National Assembly the political support for the Plan for updating the Judicial Reform Strategy. I think the Prime Minister behaves somehow as an independent arbiter between the smaller parties in the coalition regarding this matter. "

English Rossitsa Petcova