European arrest warrants issued by Bulgaria’s prosecution are invalid, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled.

The EU has shown clearly in the past weeks that the country’s failure to address long-standing problems in its judiciary are no longer tolerated. 

The court said that Bulgaria has not secured a fair procedure allowing the accused person to defend themselves in another country before the warrant is implemented, which contradicts EU laws. 

The decision means that all European arrest warrants that were issued by Bulgaria and not yet implemented must be cancelled. Bulgaria has already been strongly criticised for its insufficient judicial reforms and the lack of track record in the fight against top-level corruption and in implementation of rule of law.

Bulgarian legislation does not envisage judicial control over the European warrants, which are issued by the prosecution. Moreover, there is no procedure that would prove there are grounds for the arrest warrants.

“[T]he Court took account of the fact that the conditions for issuing a European arrest warrant by the public prosecutor’s office could be subject to judicial review before the requested person was surrendered,” the court statement said.

Defendants are not allowed to defend themselves or appeal warrants in courts of other countries before their implementation and the transfer of people back to Bulgaria, the EU court noted.

“Consequently, a judicial review of a prosecutor’s decision to issue a European arrest warrant which takes place only after the requested person is surrendered does not satisfy the obligation of the issuing Member State to implement procedural rules allowing a competent court to review, prior to that surrender, the lawfulness of the national arrest warrant or of the judicial decision having the same effect, also adopted by a prosecutor, or of the European arrest warrant,” the court also noted.

The court ruling came ahead of the April 4 general election, seen as one of the most important votes in the country’s history as Gerb, in power for more than a decade, might be forced to step down.

Earlier in March, Bulgaria got another knockback from the EU, when EU chief prosecutor Laura Kovesi declined to approve seven of Bulgaria’s ten candidates for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). The EPPO has restrictions against the appointment of investigators and against prosecutors with no experience on high-profile cases, which seems to be the case with Bulgarian candidates.

“We do not think that Bulgarian investigators are suitable for the EPPO. We respect their work, we recognise that according to Bulgarian law they are part of the judiciary, but we do not think that such people have the necessary qualifications for the EPPO,” a source quoted by Euractiv commented.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria could face new criticism after the parliament ignored veto of President Rumen Radev and adopted a highly controversial legislation change that would allow the introduction of an ‘independent’ prosecutor able to probe the chief prosecutor and his or her deputies.

The changes have raised numerous criticisms by international organisations and objections from local magistrates and opposition parties, and were vetoed by Radev on February 10 over concerns they are not effective.

At the end of February, Radev referred the amendments to the constitutional court, which is to decide whether they were legal.

In his claim to the constitutional court, Radev says the changes affect basic constitutional values such as the independence of prosecutors within the judiciary, people’s equality before the law and the ban on extraordinary courts.

Two top US senators have also criticised Bulgaria over widespread corruption. Earlier in March, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez and ranking member Jim Risch urged Bulgaria’s government to respect the rule of law and democratic values, indicating that the relations between the two countries are facing serious challenges.

They noted that the Bulgarian government and judiciary must work to uphold the rule of law for everyone and to secure freedom of expression for the media, pointing out that the country scored lowest in the European Union on both Transparency International’s 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index and the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index.