The Bulgarian representation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is experiencing serious problems, and the mass departure of delegated prosecutors, clerks and assistant prosecutors raises questions about the way the institution is managed. According to Mediapool, so far two of the nine appointed European Delegated Prosecutors have left. A third is expected to leave very soon, and more people later in the year.
The first resignation of a European prosecutor came in mid-January. It was submitted by Boyko Kalfin, who will go to work at the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor’s Office (SCPP). He won the competition for supreme prosecutor last year, but he had the right to remain at the European Prosecutor’s Office, his place at the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office being kept. He preferred to leave immediately and go to Ivan Geshev.
At the end of last week, Elena Popova resigned. Before becoming a European prosecutor, she was a judge in the special court, and now she is returning to work as a judge.
European Prosecutor Ivaylo Iliev is trying to win a post at the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust), which could happen very soon.
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.
Delegated prosecutors talk informally about a bad working atmosphere and the lack of work rules. Official leavers indicate their desire to continue elsewhere.
On Thursday, February 16, four of the five clerks in the Bulgarian office of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office left the institution. They filed a report in person with Laura Koveschi, describing the toxic work environment at the institution. According to Mediapool’s unofficial information, the Bulgarian office of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has no rules for the distribution of cases, and no rules for the organization of the office.
Two of the five assistant prosecutors have left. Three others who are close to non-random people in the legal community. Two are the children of law professors at Sofia University, and one is the brother of a former member of the Supreme Judicial Council.
Employees at the institution testify to the tension between prosecutors, employees and management.
The troubles in Köveshi’s office in Sofia work in Ivan Geshev’s favor. Last year, in the coalition supporting the “Petkov” cabinet, there were ideas for creating legislation to bypass the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office through the KPCONPI and the European Prosecutor’s Office.
Kyoveshi is investigating the case
In a comment to Mediapool, Laura Koveshi’s office said the resignations were of a personal nature and would not be commented on at the moment. The leadership of the European Prosecutor’s Office is “carefully investigating the issue” of what is happening in Bulgaria.
The annual report on the work of the institution will be published in the first days of March and will contain operational results for all countries, including Bulgaria. After that, there will be a reaction from the European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi.
The Bulgarian leadership
The Bulgarian representative in the collegium of the European Prosecutor’s Office is the former judge Teodora Georgieva, who was appointed after a competition held by the Ministry of Justice in the summer of 2019. Then the Minister of Justice was Danail Kirilov (GERB).
Deputy prosecutor Teodora Georgieva on the ground in Bulgaria is prosecutor Dimitar Belichev. Before being elected as a European Prosecutor, Georgieva was an administrative judge in Sofia, and before that she had an internship at the Sofia District and District Prosecutor’s Office. She is married to Vasil Georgiev, who was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the “Petkov” cabinet from the ITN quota. Before that, Georgiev was a commercial attache in Turkey, and then he was a manager in companies of the Prista Oil network of the Bobokov brothers.
A few months ago, the caretaker government provided a new building for the European delegated prosecutors in Bulgaria, but there is no activity in the development of the property. At the end of November, the High Judicial Council also appointed three new delegated European prosecutors, but they have not yet taken office, which depends on the headquarters in Luxembourg.
So far, the Bulgarian delegated prosecutors have achieved only one suspended sentence against a former employee of the State Fund “Zemedelie”. The sentence itself was the result of a court-approved settlement. In nearly two years of operation, only a few cases have been brought to court for consideration, and nearly 150 are still under investigation.
The fate of the folders sent by KPCONPI about the irregularities in the public procurements for the renovation of public transport in Varna, Stara Zagora and Vratsa remains unclear. In all three cases, we are talking about GERB municipalities, and the anti-corruption commission has announced violations of orders for nearly BGN 200 million, which were financed with EU money.
Conceived with problems
The selection of the delegated prosecutors did not go smoothly from the beginning. After the first procedure, the College of the European Prosecutor’s Office approved only 4 of the ten nominated by the Supreme Judicial Council, which caused a serious reaction in Bulgaria. The candidates named by the SJC were considered unsuitable.
Only in the second procedure did the delegated European prosecutors become five. The third procedure failed due to lack of candidates. A fourth procedure for six followed, in which the Prosecution College approved only three of the required five. Then the European prosecutors became a total of nine at the fifth competition of the SJC.
In the sixth, three more were elected, but not yet appointed by Luxembourg. On the other hand, those already approved began to leave en masse. Initially, the appointment of 10 European delegated prosecutors was planned for Bulgaria, but last summer Kyoveshi insisted on increasing it to 15 due to the serious workload. Given what is happening in Sofia, this quota will obviously remain unfilled for a long time.
With this lack of interest from the prosecutors and the problems in Köveshi’s office, there is a real risk that the European Prosecutor’s Office in Bulgaria will fail against the backdrop of great expectations.
In this case, Laura Köveshi and the prosecutor’s collegium in Luxembourg cannot be held responsible for the selection of the personnel in Bulgaria, because they were seconded by the Bulgarian institutions. The problem is in the possibilities of the leadership of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to solve the problems with its delegated prosecutors in the various member countries.
