The College of the European Prosecutor appointed on Monday two of the proposed candidates for delegated European prosecutors from Bulgaria, as the nomination of one of the proposed magistrates was rejected by the authorities in Sofia. This is another case of a rejected candidate for a job at the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, named by the High Judicial Council.
At the same time, Kövesi’s European Prosecutor’s Office appointed one European Prosecutor each in Estonia and Italy, and there were no rejected candidates in these two countries.
The prosecutors approved by Bulgaria are Mihaela Raidovska and Vasilen Benchev. The rejected candidate is Juliana Hristova from the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, who was nominated without a single vote “against” by the Prosecutor’s College of the Judicial Council.
For the second year now, the selection of the delegated prosecutors in Bulgaria is not going well, with the country recording a record number of rejected candidates, which is a sign of a lack of trust.
After the first procedure, the College of the European Prosecutor approved only 4 of the ten nominated by the High Judicial Council. In the second procedure, there were only five delegated European prosecutors out of ten magistrates.
The third procedure, which failed due to lack of candidates, was supposed to fill the tenth place. A fourth procedure for six followed, in which the Prosecution College approved only three. A fifth procedure is about to be opened in an attempt for Bulgaria to fill its increased quota of 15 people.
A month ago, Laura Kyoveshi announced that she was sending an inspection to her team in Bulgaria because of the problems in the institution, which Mediapool already wrote about.
According to Mediapool’s unofficial information, almost all the remaining acting European delegated prosecutors (except one) have applied for promotions with the intention of returning to work under Ivan Geshev. The preferred position is in the Sofia Appellate Prosecutor’s Office.
With the appointment of two new European prosecutors, the filled positions will become eight out of a total of 15, but more positions may become vacant very soon.
