Bulgaria Approves Law To Shore Up Judiciary

Bulgaria's government approved a draft law on Thursday aimed at improving its slow and graft-prone judiciary.

Bulgaria's government approved a draft law on Thursday aimed at improving its slow and graft-prone judiciary in an attempt to avoid sanctions from the European Union in June.

Bulgaria joined the bloc this year but Brussels has said it may quarantine its courts from the rest of the bloc and withhold million of euros in EU aid if Sofia fails to shore up its courts and put top criminals and corrupt officials behind bars.

The new judicial system law sets up an inspectorate that will monitor the courts, introduces administrative fines for judges, prosecutors and investigators and says magistrates should be appointed only after a competition.

"The law aims to strengthen the independence and the efficiency of the judiciary. The reforms will ensure the implementation of the EU justice standards," the government said in a statement.

The Socialist-led coalition pledged to pass all legislation necessary to streamline its judiciary before June, when Brussels will assess the Balkan country's progress in ensuring it can impose strict rule of law.

The government vowed on Thursday it has made serious steps to contain graft and organised crime in a report it will send to Brussels this week to prove its progress.

Interior Minister Rumen Petkov said the Balkan country has opened 1,700 investigations on corruption since October, while 300 people were sentenced for graft and 95 on organised crime charges.

"We have zero tolerance towards corruption and organised crime. We have made serious progress. Bulgaria has no reason to keep its face down," Petkov told reporters.

But despite that Sofia has yet failed to sentence a single criminal for any of the 150 gangland killings since 2001 or send to prison a high ranking corrupt official and diplomats blamed mainly the magistrates for the climate of impunity.

The new law plans to boost the accountability of the magistrates faced their strong opposition.

Senior magistrates said the planned inspectorate would not be effective and criticised provisions allowing the justice minister to manage budgetary and property related matters of the courts saying that will restrain their independence.