Effects of EU Enlargement on the Judiciary and

Effects of EU Enlargement on the Judiciary and Law Enforcement in Bulgaria

Major international instruments on counteracting corruption and organized crime, ratified by Bulgaria • • UN Convention against Corruption; Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption; Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on Corruption; OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions; • Council of Europe Convention on Money Laundering, Search and Seizure and Confiscation of Proceeds from Crime; • UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its supplementing Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, etc.

International conventions regarding judicial cooperation in criminal matters that Bulgaria needs to accede to • European Convention on the Transfer of Proceedings in Criminal Cases • Convention between the Member States of the European Communities on the Enforcement of Foreign Criminal Sentences • Convention on Simplified Extradition Procedures between the Member States of the EU • Council of Europe Convention on the International Validity of Criminal Judgments

Currently discussed reforms aimed at improving the legal instruments for fighting organized crime • Draft Law on Protection of Individuals Engaged in Criminal Proceedings • Ongoing public debate on the necessity of adopting a special law on combating organized crime and terrorism • Continuing discussions on the organizational place of the investigation service • Reform of the pre-trial stage of criminal proceedings

European Commission’s 2003 Regular Report on Bulgaria’s progress towards accession • Low efficiency and accountability of the prosecution • The place of the investigation service within the judiciary, while exercising functions generally carried out by executive authorities in EU Member States • High proportion of cases returned by the courts to the prosecution without transparent conditions thereof • Slow and complicated proceedings at the pre-trial stage of criminal procedure • Lack of sufficient cooperation and coordination between different law enforcement services, including overlapping of functions, etc.

Relevant CSD Publications You can find at http: //www. csd. bg : • Smuggling in South East Europe, 2002 (the Yugoslav war and the development of regional criminal networks in the Balkans) • Corruption, Trafficking and Institutional Reform, 2002 (Prevention of Trans-Border Crime in Bulgaria) • Drug Market in Bulgaria, 2003 • Partners in Crime, 2004 (The risks of symbiosis between the security sector and organised crime in South East Europe) • Transportation, Smuggling and Organised Crime (forthcoming)