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Bulgaria should prepare further legislative and, if necessary, constitutional changes to ensure effective investigations, credible mechanisms against impunity and to ensure independent investigations against the Attorney General. This was stated in a statement by the Council of Europe, reported BTA.
The decision was taken at the last ordinary meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in which the question of the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights was considered.
The committee discussed Bulgaria’s progress in implementing a series of court rulings that are expected to be implemented over several years.
The solutions highlight a systemic problem with ineffective criminal investigations in Bulgaria and lack of guarantees for the independence of criminal investigations related to the Attorney General and other senior officials close to him;its.
The Committee welcomes the adoption of measures to exclude the automatic dismissal of judges on criminal charges. He also expressed his satisfaction with the fact that earlier proposals that would have threatened the independence of the presidents of the two supreme courts of Bulgaria had not been accepted.
However, Regarding the investigations concerning the Attorney Generalq, the committee observes that neither the legislative proposals of December 2019 nor the subsequent ruling of the Constitutional Court of July 2020 guarantee true independence .
The Committee also believes that the same applies to the current draft of a new constitution.
The Committee asked the Bulgarian authorities to prepare further legislative and, if necessary, constitutional changes to address this issue. It encourages you to draw inspiration from the relevant recommendations of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
New measures are required to allow judicial review in case prosecutors refuse to initiate an investigation, while avoiding opening too much additional work for courts and prosecutors.
The Committee of Ministers asks the Bulgarian authorities to provide regular information on their work on the draft constitutional reform.
It was decided to reconsider this group of cases at a meeting in March 2021, which will be dedicated to the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
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