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| Discussion: Criminal Justice in the Context of Bulgaria’s EU Accession: Problems with Application of the New Criminal Procedure Code and the Law on the Ministry of Interior
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 A discussion on “Criminal Justice in the Context of Bulgaria’s EU Accession: Problems with Application of the New Criminal Procedure Code and the Law on the Ministry of Interior” took place on June 6, 2006, organized jointly by the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Ministry of Interior. In his opening remarks Minister of Interior Rumen Petkov outlined some of the most serious problems related to the application of the new Criminal Procedure Code, such as the insufficient number of investigating police officers, the extremely short time limits for the investigation of crimes and the completion of court proceedings, the impossibility for the investigating police officers to be called as witnesses in court, etc.
 In his introduction the CSD Chairman Dr. Ognian Shentov pointed out the need of expert and public debate on the problems of criminal justice in order to identify them and solve them in due time, irrespective of whether those are related to the legal framework, the organization of its implementation or the bodies responsible thereof.
The problems in both the pre-trial phase and the court procedure, upstanding a month before the entry in force of the new legislation, were also reviewed. Mr. Vasil Stoichev form the National Police Service analyzed the work of the investigating police officers in the process crime investigation. In order to solve the existing problems he proposed a reform of the legal framework which would permit the Minister of Interior to appoint by an order other police officers (apart from the investigating police officers) who would perform initial investigation activities. Mr. Mladen Chervenyakov, Member of Parliament from the Coalition for Bulgaria, proposed the creation of a centralized structure “Police Investigation” within the National Police Service.
Mr. Rumen Georgiev, Deputy-Director of the National Investigation Service, underlined the changes that occurred in the investigation service as a result of the new legal framework and took a firm position for the abolition of the preclusive time limits for the investigation of crimes set by the new law. He affirmed that those time limits would lead to obstruction of the investigation, while Mr. Asen Arsov, Head of Division in the Supreme Prosecution Office of Cassation suggested their replacement with “ones that would have instructive nature and disciplinary effect”. Mr. Arsov stressed on the role of the prosecutor after the conclusion of the pre-trial proceedings and on the new aspects related to the institution of the supervising prosecutor.
Mr. Rumen Nenkov, Deputy-Chair of the Supreme Court of Cassation, reviewed the reforms of the court proceedings focusing on the rules related to the collection of evidence as well as the termination of the court proceedings and returning the case to the prosecutor.
 The excessive workload of the investigating police officers and the supervising prosecutors, the need of reconsidering the criteria for appointment of the investigating police officers, (including the abolishment of the requirement for university degree or university degree in law), enhancement of the preventive role of pre-trial proceedings, broadening the powers of the National Investigation Service to include the investigation of crimes committed by minors and those related to the high level political corruption, introducing a definition of “detected crime”, etc. were amongst the topics in the discussion.
The participants in the event shared the idea that in order to solve the problems complex measures are needed – both to overcome some legal framework flaws and to reform the structure and the organization of the system of bodies charged with the criminal prosecution.
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