Bulgaria, now under a recently installed center right administration led by Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, will undergo a new assessment by Brussels of its progress in these areas next July. At stake are € 11 billion in aid through 2013. The EU’s previous censure cost the country’s government millions of Euros in assistance.
While the current proposal has yet to be sent to parliament, Minister of Justice Margarita Popova already described the measure as a victory.
“With this bill the government proves its explicit will to fight corruption . . . we can respond to the criticism by the European Union that Bulgaria must tackle the problems with so-called unexplained wealth,” Popova told a news conference.
Previous Law Almost Unused
Since 1989, Bulgaria has convicted only one head of an organized crime syndicate and not convicted any senior official of corruption.
Under the previous law, the anti-crime commission and state prosecutors were allowed to freeze the assets of those under investigation, and confiscate assets only after a successful conviction.
The new law would allow the anti-crime commission to launch independent investigations into suspicious assets and confiscate them even in cases where no conviction had been made. The commission would be able to investigate any case where a discrepancy of 60,000 Bulgarian levs (approx. €30,000) exists between reported sources of income and the actual value of the assets.
--Michael Mehen
