The emphasis should be on the quality of the new election of a parliamentary quota in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), and not so much on the deadlines, said the acting Minister of Justice Andrey Yankulov to the Bulgarian National Radio, quoted by news.bg. "Whether it will be in 3 or 6 months - I don't think that is decisive, especially since we already have a Supreme Judicial Council with a very expired mandate - more than 3-4 years", he pointed out.
According to him, it is important that the change of personnel is implemented at a good pace, but it must initially include a change in the rules according to which the election of the members of the SJC should take place. Yankulov added that this requires certain technological deadlines and careful consideration of exactly what the changes should be. "If we move in the direction of making things happen as quickly as possible, in my opinion, we risk that they will not happen in the right way", he commented.
Andrei Yankulov also said that there is no way that the parliamentary quota alone can bring about a serious change in the overall appearance of the SJC. According to him, the choice of the professional quota will be of great importance. "Over the years, many changes have been made in this direction", he pointed out.
"We must realize that the judicial system - judges, prosecutors and investigators - have had the opportunity to assert their independence for many years now. They have been given a full normative opportunity to assert their independence and it largely depends on them what choice they will make", the Minister of Justice commented. According to him, there is no way that the malicious influences in the judiciary can be limited or eliminated only by technical means.
According to Yankulov, the format of the Prosecutor's College is problematic at the organizational level. "It is made up almost exclusively, if not completely exclusively, of former and future subordinates of the Prosecutor General, i.e. people from the system itself. If people who are not part of the prosecutor's office enter the prosecutor's college through the parliamentary quota, they can serve as such a lever for balance against the people who will have this internal departmental dependence, even if it is not formally expressed during the term of office of the SJC, he said.
Andrei Yankulov pointed out that such dependence exists and this is one of the problems in the constitution of the SJC. "Unfortunately, the attempt to resolve it to some extent with the latest constitutional changes failed in the Constitutional Court (CC). The Parliament has the option, when conducting this election, not to include prosecutors from the system in the quota it will elect," he added.
According to Yankulov, this way there will still be a greater opportunity for balance through external people. "At the moment, the prosecutorial college - the way it operates there, fully corresponds to the policies set by the leadership of the institution itself, which should not be the case", he noted.
The acting Minister of Justice was categorical that the Prosecutorial College of the SJC should not operate under the dictation of the Prosecutor General. According to him, "the cure for this" is difficult.
"If the professional community decides to approach this election in the way it has approached it in the past years, even a qualitative change in the choice of the parliamentary quota will not lead to this significant change in the overall structure of the SJC. But this should not divert the majority in parliament from the need to hold such an election," he stated.
Yankulov also pointed out that changes in the judiciary are happening slowly and even contradictory. "These are very complex processes. The results of these are difficult to predict at the time when these changes are implemented," he commented.
Andrei Yankulov also said that even if a quality choice is made for the new SJC, this will not lead to any quick results. "People who are involved in these processes must be aware and must tell the citizens so that they are aware and there are no unrealistic expectations of what can happen in the judiciary. These unrealistic expectations will later lead to negative consequences for the people who are currently creating them," he argued.
In his words, such actions cannot achieve qualitative change in a short time, especially in an institution like the prosecutor's office, which has been suffering from severe management deficits for years. Yankulov noted that qualitative change is a long process, and in recent years this process has not developed in a positive direction. "The trend must be reversed in this process. "This thing cannot be done in a short time," he stressed.
Yankulov also said that his team has prepared important draft laws under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), related to a depoliticized anti-corruption commission and improving the investigation mechanism of the Prosecutor General. The draft laws have been adopted by the Council of Ministers (CM) and have been consulted with the European Commission. According to him, if they are adopted by parliament, this will be a positive development for justice.