22/01/2013 Session
Strasbourg, 22.01.2013 – At the end of a parliamentary debate, held on the basis of the report by Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today decided “to continue the post-monitoring dialogue with the Bulgarian authorities in respect of reform of the judiciary, media freedom and transparency of ownership, as well as the revision of the Electoral Code."
The Assembly nevertheless pointed out that, since the opening of the post-monitoring dialogue in 2000, ”Bulgaria has continued to make substantial progress towards the fulfilment of its remaining obligations” and that the country had taken a number of important measures designed to implement the Assembly’s recommendations, particularly since the PACE had adopted Resolution 1730 (2010).
The PACE therefore welcomes the efforts that Bulgaria has made to introduce a comprehensive legislative and administrative framework and the crucial reforms put in place, in particular the introduction of laws on the functioning of the judiciary.
However, the Assembly believes that the administrative and judicial authorities need to assume full ownership of the reforms and notes that “some fundamental principles, such as the independence of the judiciary, have not always been fully respected”. With regard to the action taken to fight corruption and organised crime, some problems have not yet been solved “as confirmed by the lack of results in terms of final court rulings with regard to high profile corruption cases”.
The Assembly has therefore called on the Bulgarian authorities to take a series of measures “to confirm the sustainability and irreversibility of the reforms” and, in accordance with its internal procedures, will continue to closely follow developments in this country.