The European Commission has praised Bulgaria's will for reform in the fight against organised crime and corruption, but has slammed the country's judicial system's failure to investigate, prosecute and try cases of high-level corruption and organised crime.

This emerged from a report released on March 23 2010 on Bulgaria's progress under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), the instrument that took effect when the country joined the European Union in January 2007 even though its home affairs and justice systems were not up to EU standards.

The March 23 document is an interim report providing a technical update on significant developments having occurred during the past six months in Bulgaria under the CVM. It does not contain an assessment on progress achieved.

The report takes note that in the past six months, Bulgaria has launched a number of important initiatives which show will for reform.

"Although the merit of these initiatives can only be assessed once they will have produced concrete results, they demonstrate a growing recognition that substantial and far-reaching reforms are required," the European Commission said.

The report refers to the continuously poor results of the judicial system to investigate, prosecute and try cases of high-level corruption and organised crime.

In the area of judicial reform, Bulgaria plans improvements to the Penal Procedure Code in order to achieve shorter and more effective investigations and court proceedings.
 
In the past six months, Bulgaria continued inspecting courts and prosecution offices which led to numerous recommendations and to an increasing number of disciplinary proceedings against magistrates, the report said.
 
Since mid-2009, Bulgaria responded to some recommendations of the European Commission, notably by an initiative to improve the objectivity of the annual appraisal of magistrates, the results of which however cannot be yet assessed, according to the report.
 
"Likewise, extending the monitoring of judicial practice to more high-level cases is commendable, however abusive delays in some important cases continued," a European Commission media statement said.
 
Allegations of serious corruption in relation to appointments to senior positions in the judiciary have undermined the reputation of the judiciary in the second half of 2009 and need to be fully examined, the report said.

On the fight against corruption and organised crime, the report said that Bulgaria plans to improve the effectiveness of the forfeiture of criminal assets by applying forfeiture to a wider group of persons related to a crime unless the legal origin of assets can be proven.
 
Bulgaria also decided to strengthen the structures of the prosecution by setting up joint investigation teams for corruption and organised crime.
 
In addition, Bulgaria launched a structural reform of the National Revenue Agency and of the National Customs Agency and commenced work on a comprehensive strategy to fight corruption and organised crime.
 
Although a number of new investigations and indictments for high-level corruption and organised crime have recently been reported, delays in important cases continued and no conviction in a high-level case could be reported since mid 2009.

A further street-killing linked to organised crime occurred in January 2010, the report said, in an apparent reference to the murder of former radio host Bobbie Tsankov.

The European Commission said that it was calling on Bulgaria to further extend its reform efforts in order to reach "concrete, measurable and significant results".

"Reforms recommended by the Commission in July 2009 should become a matter of national priority and must be launched in more areas to achieve a profound reform of the judiciary."

Bulgaria should continue its efforts to reform penal procedures and strengthen asset forfeiture.

In addition, Bulgaria should strengthen the capacity of the judiciary in order to demonstrate concrete results in high-level cases.

The Commission said that it will "continue to support Bulgaria in this endeavour" and provide its next in-depth assessment of progress by summer 2010.

The Commission's reports under the CVM are published twice a year. They are based on contributions from the Bulgarian Government, European Commission services, EU member states and NGOs.