Brussels will Check Bulgaria’s Progress in Judicial Reform

The European Commission’s Expert Mission on the Co-operation and Evaluation Mechanism begins work today in Sofia, reported BGNES. The mission will last for three days and includes meetings with representatives of the legislative, executive and judicial authorities as well as independent control bodies. Euroexperts are in the Bulgarian capital for the preparation of the Annual Progress Report. This time, the report is expected to be released earlier, not as usual on the last Wednesday of January. The reason – the EC does not want to make recommendations with regard to a Member State which is at the same time President of the Council of the European Union, and Bulgaria becomes one on January 1, 2018 for a period of six months. The EC Commission report, which will be announced by the end of 2017, may also be one of the last, according to EC Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s announcements that at the end of the mandate of this Commission, the so- called “monitoring mechanism” for Bulgaria and Romania will be terminated and replaced by a common monitoring that will apply to all EU Member States.