The current draft of Bulgaria’s anti-corruption bill will send a clear message no-one is beyond the law, Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva has argued.

Kuneva is quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio as telling reporters that the new version of the bill is “much more powerful” that the previous one, since the team preparing it has taken into consideration all the remarks voiced by judiciary officials. She is referring to criticism recently hurled by representatives of the judicial system with regard to some of the definitions included in the law. Kuneva has personally been in charge of overseeing the bill as it was being prepared.

It has been among her the top priorities of her Bulgaria of Citizens Movement party (DBG, a member of the Reformist Bloc coalition) since the government was formed. However, lawmakers’ failure to pass the previous version of the bill in Parliament drew fire from other EU member states. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov personally vowed that a new draft would be resubmitted in a matter of months.

In March, she told BBC’s HardTalk the bill in question had been “too good to pass”. Corruption and an ineffective judicial system have been among key challenges for Bulgaria pointed by the EU Commission, which has encouraged by the adoption of the law and a comprehensive judicial reform the government is carrying out.

Novinite

9 April 2016