От Закон за изменение и допълнение на Конституцията до сезиране на конституционната юрисдикция – календарът на конституционните промени (с фокус върху прокуратурата)
FROM AN ACT AMENDING AND SUPPLEMENTING THE CONSTITUTION TO A REFERRAL TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL JURISDICTION – THE CALENDAR OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS (FOCUSING ON THE PROSECUTION SERVICE)

Summary/Abstract: In the last month of 2023 we witnessed the sixth amendment of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria after its adoption more than three decades ago. The amendments in question affect provisions within 6 out of 10 chapters of the Constitution and mainly focus on the judiciary. A number of norms, related to the appointing bodies of the judiciary – their number, design, composition and the ratio between members elected by magistrates and members elected by the national assembly, were modified. Serious amendments were introduced regarding the mandate, functions and appointment of the Prosecutor General. Their major objective was decreasing his enormous influence on ordinary public prosecutors. Deficiency of reasons behind the proposals and non-compliance with prominent legal experts’ opinions about the major defects of the bill lead to solid apprehension in terms of non-conformity with the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court (chiefly Judgement № 3/2003 on constitutional case № 22/2002) and the procedural rules, enshrined in Article 155, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Constitution. On top of the allegations that the current amendments concern changes in the form of government, which means the National Assembly is not competent to vote and adopt them, the new provisions about the judiciary have substantial drawbacks, which undermine the independence of the judiciary and lead to increase of political impact on the prosecution service by establishing dominance of the members in the Supreme Prosecutorial Council, appointed by the parliament.

• Details
• Contents