12/12/2012 Monitoring
Strasbourg, 12.12.2012 – While welcoming the substantial progress made by Bulgaria towards the fulfilment of its remaining obligations, the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today said that the current post-monitoring dialogue with the Bulgarian authorities should continue.
The adopted text, based on a report by Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), underlines that “during the entire period of the post-monitoring dialogue, Bulgaria has continued to make substantial progress towards the fulfilment of its remaining obligations. Since the adoption by the Assembly of Resolution 1730 (2010) on the post-monitoring dialogue with Bulgaria, the country has taken a number of important measures designed to implement the Assembly’s recommendations”.
However, it considers that some steps still need to be taken in a number of key areas, notably with regard to the independence of the judiciary, which has “not always been fully respected”, and the fight against corruption and organised crime, with a “lack of results in terms of final court rulings with regard to high profile corruption cases”.
The committee said it hoped its confidence that Bulgaria will continue to advance in the right direction “is not misplaced” and expected that the remaining concerns will be addressed “democratically and in full compliance with the relevant mechanisms and procedures”.
The Assembly will vote on the draft resolution on the post-monitoring dialogue with Bulgaria during its next plenary session in Strasbourg (21-25 January 2013).