Council of Ministers: EC report under CVM is objective, we continue with reforms

The European Commission's report objectively reflects the aspirations of all institutions in the country to reform the judicial system. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva, the Minister of Justice Tsetska Tsacheva and the Interior Minister Mladen Marinov commented in the Council of Ministers on 13^th of November. They stressed that Bulgaria appreciates the exceptionally high confidence that the monitoring for the country can be lifted until the end of this Commission's term of office. They also stated the Bulgarian Government's strong intention to continue with the reforms.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, Deputy Prime Minister for Justice Reform and Minister of Foreign Affairs: For the first time it is considered that three out of six benchmarks are provisionally closed, which means that Bulgaria has fulfilled the recommendations. In order to be finally closed, I stress, there should be final closing of the entire mechanism so that is why the word “provisionally” is used. Something that I am very pleased with is the closure of benchmark 6 - namely the fight against organised crime.

Tsetska Tsacheva, Minister of Justice: The report of the European Commission is positive, objective and clearly emphasizes the irreversibility of the implemented reforms. The Ministry of Justice also expresses its determination that we will continue our work on implementing all recommendations so that the horizon, which for the first time with this report is already visible for the revoking of the mechanism to be a reality in the coming months.

Mladen Marinov, Minister of the Interior: I accept the dropping of Benchmark 6 of the EC report as an objective assessment. This is a result of the efforts over the years together with the Specialised Prosecutor's Office because the main unit that counteracts organised crime is the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, and accordingly it works with the Specialised Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria.