Bulgaria's Supreme Bar Council (SBC) called on Parliament to re-consider and delay the date on which the country's new Civil Procedure Code is scheduled to enter into force, SBC chair Trayan Markovski wrote in an open letter on February 4.

The bar association said March 1 2008 was an ‘unrealistic deadline’ for the implementation of the Civil Procedure Code and that more time was needed to evaluate a number of  new principles and practices introduced by the code, as well as remove the numerous internal contradictory regulations in the Code.

SBC said that if the Code came into force on schedule, it would clog the judicial system, and called for a wide debate on the Code in the legal community.

Markovski also warned that in its current form, the Code would make it impossible to protect constitutional rights of citizens and uncountable material damages for companies.

The letter was addressed to Parliament speaker Georgi Pirinski, Justice Minister Miglena Tacheva, Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev and the heads of the Supreme Court of Cassation and Supreme Administrative Court, Lazar Grouev and Konstantin Penchev, respectively, Dnevnik daily said.

Bulgaria has to implement a  new civil procedure code as part of its judiciary reform, a major sticking point with the European Union, which the country joined in January 2007.

Earlier in the day, the European Commission said in its interim report on Bulgaria's progress in reforming its judiciary and fighting organised crime that the country was doing well on ensuring a more transparent and efficient judicial process, and qualified its plans regarding the legal framework for the judiciary as "detailed and credible".