Danail Kirilov nominated to be minister of justice

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov proposes the chair of Parliament’s legal affairs committee, Danail Kirilov, to be the Minister of Justice.

Borissov said that the first task of Kirilov as justice minister will be to work for the inclusion of municipal councilors within the scope of the anti-corruption law. Kirilov himself announced that it was a great challenge for him.

Kirilov is to succeed Tsetska Tsacheva as Justice Minister, who submitted her resignation on March 23 after following media reports that politicians from the ruling center-right GERB purchased high-end apartments at below-market prices.

The Prime Minister said that everyone involved in the recent controversy about concealment of assets, including the anti-corruption commission and the Supreme Cassation Court, should resign or take long leave.

Borissov said that his GERB party had set a standard and if there were any scandals – “whether an MP, head of a parliamentary group, Minister of Justice, Deputy Minister of Energy, or of sport, they resigned. I would recommend the same to those involved in these scandals, he said.

But, because these are people from the judiciary, they do not like to be placed under a common denominator or are very sensitive, but the standrd should be the same for all. So they should either resign or go on long leave, while institutions different from the institutions they work in are carrying out checks on them, Borissov added.

Danail Kirilov described the nomination as a very serious challenge, and said that a key priority as a justice minister would be to get a positive assessment in the next monitoring report.

Danail Kirilov - nominated Minister of Justice: "I take it as a great trust, as a very serious task, in view of the need to complete the work on the monitoring mechanism within a few months."

Bulgaria has been subject to a Co-operation and Verification Mechanism since it joined EU in 2007 to ensure it meets EU standards on judicial reform, fight against corruption and organised crime, but would like to see this CVM process ended.