Bulgaria’s judicial system was subject to strong criticism from various sources overt the recent days-letters, the EC report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, etc. It was criticized strongly by a letter signed by ten mixed chambers of commerce in the beginning of this week, addressed to Premier Borissov, National Assembly Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, President Plevneliev and the Ministers of the current Bulgarian cabinet. The West-European and US chambers of commerce demanded in that letter that the authorities should carry out a real judicial reform and that law supremacy in that country had to prevail. This unprecedented letter in fact repeated the key elements of the Judicial Development Strategy adopted by the state authorities who keep on claiming that although the process is still very slow, some progress has been made in the judicial reform field. However, the foreign investors apparently share a different view, because according to their letter, there is a lack of significant changes in the judiciary.

Premier Boyko Borissov did not answer personally to the sharp criticism of the western business and set that delicate and difficult task to Bulgaria’s Deputy Premier for EU Funds and Economic Policies Tomislav Donchev, as well as to Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior Rumiana Bachvarova and the newly-appointed Minister of Justice Ekaterina Zaharieva. The fact that Bulgarian high officials had to comment that letter means that the state authorities are taking seriously the significance of the letter of discontent sent by the foreign investors and that there are concerned about the investors’ discontent. In fact, during the meeting between the authorities and the business, the usual clichés that the reforms have already started were heard. The state authorities ensured once again that they are strongly committed to changing the picture in the country’s judicial field. Thus, the authorities wanted to calm the foreign business and make one last sign of good will only several days before the official announcement of the EC report about the progress of Bulgaria in the judicial field and internal order. That was a reasonable move, because some reliable foreign sources signaled in advance that the annual EC report would be very critical. However, it turned out that the meeting between the state authorities and the foreign business failed to soften the report of the European Commission and change some of its recommendations to Bulgaria.

Thus, within one week only, Bulgaria was forced to bear the responsibility of the lack of any progress in the judicial field whatsoever. The foreign business promised to provide assistance to the authorities through various proposals regarding amendments to the legislation and the EC is to send foreign experts to analyze the problems of the country’s judiciary and come up with concrete proposals for their solution.

The state judiciary, however, did not show any concerns and continued dealing with conspiracies and personal disputes. It keept on looking for the problem somewhere else, thus questioning the good intentions for future reforms.