2024-03-26 21:29:17
A caretaker government can stop changes to the Law on Judiciary, resigned Justice Minister Atanas Slavov told journalists.
It is possible that an interim government will not recognize these texts, said Slavov.
“If there are changes in the government, the process of voting on changes to the Judiciary Law can be stopped or delayed,” he said.
He pointed out that the department met all the deadlines and prepared the changes in the judicial law, as written in the Constitution.
Justice reform is a strategic priority, the resigned Minister of Justice Atanas Slavov also said at a debate related to the public discussion of the Law on Judicial Power. Organizers of the event are the Ministry and the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives.
Partnership with civil society organizations is important to have a convincing legislative process. It is difficult to predict in this political situation what will happen in the coming days, Slavov pointed out.
He expressed hope that a step will be taken in terms of justice reform and recalled that the Ministry of Justice has a working group of about 50 people working in this direction, writes BTA.
It was important to prepare an impact assessment of this law, Slavov pointed out.
The Ministry of Justice fulfilled its public commitment to have a completely new Law on the Judiciary drawn up within two months after the adoption of the Constitution. This bill has been under preliminary public discussion since March 5, in official public discussion since March 25, and it is scheduled to be submitted to the parliament in the second half of April, Slavov said.
The key for us in this law is that all the main reform ideas that were laid down in the Constitution are reflected – the separation of the two councils – judicial and prosecutorial, change in the structure of the prosecutor’s office, depoliticization of the members of the SJC and the Supreme Prosecutorial Council, depoliticization of elections of the inspectorate at the SJC. All the main ideas are here. If someone does not recognize them, he must give strong arguments why he does not recognize them, the resigned Minister of Justice also pointed out.
What should be clear, these councils, which are in place at the moment, cannot hold elections for the three top leaders in the judiciary, because the Constitution has expressly excluded this possibility, Slavov recalled
He explained that if the term of office of the President of the Supreme Administrative Court expires, a judge from the Supreme Administrative Court can act. This must be decided by the SJC. This is not a good development, however. All that had to happen is for the parliament to adopt the new Law on the Judiciary by the end of June, for elections to be held for the two quotas – professional and parliamentary – by the autumn, and for the autumn to have peaceful elections for the chairman of the Supreme Court and the chief prosecutor, commented Slavov.
On the occasion of the expected decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the changes in the Constitution, Slavov said that he does not expect there to be any serious changes in the chapter “Judicial Power”.
With the changes in the Constitution and the proposals of the Law on the Judiciary, the landscape of the judicial system is changing. This is a challenge for people both inside the system and for those who are not inside it, commented the director of the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives, Bilyana Gyaurova-Wegertseder.
This forum is important because the new law attempts to address more situations described in the Constitution. In addition, the new law breaks with some traditions for the structure of the judiciary. Thus begins a new transformation of the system, Gyaurova also said.