In the area of veterinary and animal health, transitional measures concerning swine fever have been taken and eradication plans have been approved. A review of these efforts is planned for September 2007. The Commission has also adopted transitional measures in the meat and milk sectors. Only a limited number of establishments are authorised to send their products to other member states. Specific measures have been adopted for raw milk.
Support
Support will be provided to assist Bulgaria in its efforts to reform the judiciary and combat organised crime and corruption. This will involve focusing and targeting existing EC funding under the different programmes available to Bulgaria on support for institution building and training programmes related to judicial reform and the fight against organised crime.
The European Commission invites the other member states to step up their assistance and valuable practical support to Bulgaria by co-operating with the Bulgarian authorities in joint investigative teams on corruption and organised crime, sharing financial intelligence and methodologies, seconding experts and advisors to key ministries and bodies (such as the future Inspectorates under the Judicial System Act or the Supreme Judicial Council) and providing high level training to Bulgarian police, customs officers and prosecutors at their national police and customs academies, schools of magistrates or national justice institutes and other centres of excellence for the public service.
The primordial importance of the principle of rule of law for the EU implies that all actors – Commission, Bulgaria and the other Member States – have to co-operate to ensure that Bulgaria is effectively reforming its judiciary and fighting crime and corruption at all levels. By October 2007, the Commission will examine assistance offered from the member states so as to identify gaps and ensure that a full range of support is provided to Bulgaria.
Follow-up under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism
Concerning judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime, Bulgaria should continue to move towards meeting the benchmarks and in particular,
• Extend the monitoring systems for the new Judicial System Act and Procedural Codes following the adoption and implementation of the Judicial System Act and the Civil Procedures Code and report regularly on the results of this monitoring.
• Ensure that the Inspectorates within the Supreme Judicial Council function properly; mainstream pilot activities of computer based random allocation of cases and carry further evaluation activities and training of judges and prosecutors in ethical behaviour.
• Demonstrate results within the anti-corruption framework. Bulgaria should build on progress achieved on the investigative side and strengthen its efforts to increase awareness among the judiciary for the importance of legal finality and dissuasive jurisdiction in cases of high-level corruption. This includes cases in which influential and well-known personalities are indicted.
• Provide independent analysis, a convincing methodology and reliable and targeted statistics to assess whether high level corruption cases, street killings as well as organised crime cases are properly investigated and dissuasive judgments are rendered.
There should be no let up in prevention and prosecution measures. In addition, progress must be monitored and reported in a comprehensive and conclusive way.
• Strengthen efforts and political commitment to implement the action plan against organised crime and report in a transparent fashion on activities undertaken. Bulgaria should also further deepen its international co-operation in this area.
• In order to achieve the above, strengthen the capacity of the judiciary at all levels, including professionalism, independence, resources and powers.
The Co-operation and Verification Mechanism will continue to be used to monitor progress in Bulgaria. In order to facilitate co-operation and verification, it would be useful for the Bulgarian authorities to prepare an action plan, with milestones, by October 2007 showing how Bulgaria intends to meet the benchmarks. A draft bill amending the Law on Measures against Money Laundering was approved by the Council of Ministers on November 30 2006. The draft requires all banks and e-cash companies to provide additional information on operations and transactions where money laundering is suspected. The proposed amendments are designed to align the regulatory framework with the Credit Institutions Act, which became effective on January 1 2007. The amendments are still under discussion in Parliament. Bulgarian authorities are also working on the transposition of the EU third anti money laundering Directive.
Improved and refined statistics and information systems on corruption and organised crime cases and their follow-up by the judiciary would also facilitate efforts under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism. It is important that the Bulgarian authorities foster an open dialogue with Bulgarians by enhancing transparency on reforms undertaken under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism.
