European Union Justice commissioner Franco Frattini urged Parliament to accept a fourth amendment to the constitution on a first reading by mid-September during his July 31 visit to the country. The amendment would thus become part of the European Commission’s (EC) September report on Romania and Bulgaria’s state of readiness to join the EU. A fourth amendment would also help remove doubts as to the independence of magistrates created by the third amendment to the constitution.The third amendment allowed Parliament to dismiss heads of supreme courts, which was the only serious threat to judicial independence, Dnevnik wrote. Confusion over what to do in the little time left and inability to properly communicate the specifics of the Bulgarian court system are resulting in the creation of a new body to observe the judicial system, Dnevnik wrote.
Still, Frattini said that Bulgaria was on the right track and that it had achieved notable successes in police training, border protection, security, and fighting organised crime and corruption – the most critical areas for Bulgaria’s January 2007 EU entry. It is important to pay attention to not only high-level corruption, but to small-scale corruption as well because it affects many more people. Achievements in fighting corruption against civil servants since the last EU report were notable, he said.
The commissioner said that he was more optimistic about Bulgaria’s ability to implement all reforms needed for timely entry than he was after his last visit in January. The key word now is work, he said, so that no speed is lost.
After his visit to Bulgaria, Frattini went on to praise Romania as well during his visit there on August 1-2.
Frattini’s visit included meetings with President Georgi Purvanov, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, Justice Minister Georgi Petkanov, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev.
Stanishev informed Frattini about details of the Government’s EU action plan and the Cabinet’s action plans leading up to the EC’s September report.
Petkov gave Frattini a list of results from successful police operations. Those included four successful raids that dealt with VAT-related fraud, organised crime and human or drug trafficking during recent days, as well as information about the threefold drop of criminal rates in certain areas of the country, related to the introduction of a video surveillance system in late April. The latter had also helped more than 800 car owners retrieve their vehicles.
More specifically, successful police action included the busting of a crime syndicate that had smuggled 16 million leva in crime assets out of Bulgaria late in the week of July 24; the breaking of a network of letterbox companies siphoning off VAT; the interception of drugs worth over two million euro and the arrest of several people related to the case, the Interior Ministry’s report said.
Velchev gave Frattini folders with information about the money-laundering cases going on at the moment, doing what he can to convince Frattini that the trend in the prosecution office’s work was irreversible.
Civil society organisations told Frattini about signals they have given against 12 magistrates.
The commissioner was pleased to see that Parliament had cancelled its summer vacations and was willing to vote on amendments in September, private Darik radio reported. It is important and good that MPs from different parties had achieved a consensus regarding the adoption of constitutional changes, Frattini said, calling the development an important political moment.
Frattini insisted on the need to amend the Law on Political Parties and the Civil Procedure Code and on the necessity to revoke the bank secret act that would protect the interests of citizens and businesses, while also removing obstacles to money-laundering investigations.
Bulgaria will undergo serious monitoring after its EU accession regardless of its current efforts. This is not against Bulgaria, Frattini said, addressing the country’s concern at becoming a second-rate EU member.
