According to information from the legal website “Lex“, the Judicial College of the Supreme Judicial Council is opening procedures for the election of administrative heads - chairmen of 26 courts - most of which are district and two county courts.
This was announced by “Yes, Bulgaria“.
No one disputes that the courts should have heads. The question is whether a body with a long-expired mandate, heavy accumulated negatives and deep public distrust should make decisions with long-term consequences for the judicial system.
That is precisely why “Democratic Bulgaria“ insists on a moratorium on key personnel decisions of the current SJC until the election of a new composition and submits such a legislative proposal on the first working day of the parliament. As Nadezhda Yordanova stated in the SB declaration at the opening of the 52nd National Assembly, the goal is for an exhausted body to no longer predetermine the future of the judiciary.
This is not a dispute about an administrative procedure, but a question of institutional legitimacy.
The mass opening of competitions for chairmen of courts by the SJC with an expired mandate creates reasonable doubts about regrouping and strengthening dependencies in the system. Therefore, the SB insists that the National Assembly urgently adopt legal changes that would limit the ability of this SJC to make appointments and personnel decisions with lasting consequences.
For this purpose, it is necessary to form a legal committee in the parliament without delay to consider the proposals. The Bulgarian judiciary needs a new SJC with legitimacy, transparent rules and trust - not from the latest wave of appointments from a body whose mandate has long since ended.