New Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council Elected

Without debate, Bulgaria’s parliament has chosen the 11 members of the new Supreme Judicial Council.Five of the 11 members of the council come from the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, two are from the main opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, two are from an opposition ethnic Turkish party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, RZS, and one each are from the far-right nationalist Ataka, and the conservative Order, Law and Justice party, RZS.

The mandate of the current council ends on October 3.

The new council will be important for Bulgaria as it will elect the new chief prosecutor and president of the Supreme Court of Cassations.

The election of the new council comes in the aftermath of several large-scale scandals in which the current body was entangled.

The latest European Commission report on Bulgaria’s five-year progress under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism highlighted what it called the council’s misguided policies, its inconsistent application of the principle of independence of the judiciary and its implementation of reforms only under external pressure.