GERB and DPS are sabotaging the justice reform, the victim is the money under the recovery plan

GERB and DPS are sabotaging the recovery plan and that is why Bulgaria has not yet received the second tranche of the recovery plan – their former partners from the PP-DB accused them of this at a briefing in parliament.

“Even at the end of last year, all the actions that depend on the Council of Ministers were done and the bills were submitted to the National Assembly. At the moment, in order for the second payment to be made, the National Assembly must adopt four acts”, he explained at a briefing in the parliament the former prime minister Nikolay Denkov.

One of them is the bill for changes to the Personal Bankruptcy Act, which was passed in first reading on June 15. Second – the rules for selecting the new Anti-Corruption Commission. Two projects have been submitted – one for PP-DB and one for GERB and DPS, but they have been pending in the parliament’s office since March 6. The third unenacted law is for the protection of whistleblowers.

“The project, proposed to the Council of Ministers last year, was changed by GERB in a way that is not acceptable to the European Commission, because it requires not to consider signals submitted for actions before 2021,” recalled Academician Denkov.

The fourth act is the road map for climate neutrality, which GERB submitted a few days ago and is included in the weekly program of the parliament.

“Three specific reasons for which GERB and DPS took us to elections. First, to preserve their comfortable majorities in the Supreme Judicial Council and the Supreme Prosecutor’s Council. Since the new Law on the Judiciary, a clear and definite depoliticization of parliamentary participation in both Second, they can use the pre-election anti-corruption commission, which since September has increased powers, but with old leadership. Third reason – to get amnesty for potential reports and investigations from before 2021. “, said the former Minister of Justice Atanas Slavov.

The second tranche is in the amount of BGN 1.4 billion, which will not come until Bulgaria adopts the necessary legislative changes. The money was expected to arrive this week. Among the demands of the EC is the liberalization of electricity, which, however, the deputies agreed to postpone for another year.

“Delaying liberalization will not help anything. With the introduction of liberalization this summer, electricity prices will not change by more than 1-2% and it is not clear up or down. The argument that there is no money in the energy security fund also is no longer adequate – the fund is capitalized. This is an obvious populist move, which will make the next liberalization even more difficult. This is a fight for voters, which is at the expense of the people. As they were lied to for at least ten years power plants can work indefinitely with this capacity, so at the moment they are lying to people that the adoption of this act will help something. It will not help at all, and next year it will hinder,” said Academician Denkov.