Report on progress in Bulgaria under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism

Summary:

Report presented on 22 October 2019 by the European Commission on the progress made by Bulgaria in the context of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) since November 2018.

Further information:

In the Decision establishing the CVM, the Commission, whilst noting the considerable efforts made to complete Bulgaria's preparations for membership, had identified remaining issues where further progress was still necessary to ensure the capacity of judicial system and law enforcement bodies to implement and apply the measures adopted to establish the internal market and the area of freedom, security and justice. This has driven the CVM process, leading to the seventeen key recommendations made by the Commission in its January 2017 report.

Bulgaria has worked consistently on the implementation of these recommendations, as set out in the November 2017 and November 2018 reports. This work has continued over the past year, and Bulgaria has made further progress, including on the recommendations relating to benchmarks three, four and five, which remained open following last year’s assessment.

The past year has seen the consolidation of the legal and institutional framework put in place over previous years. Translating this into results over the long term will require determination and follow-up. The steps taken by Bulgaria to put systems in place to monitor this process are essential in that respect.

EUR-Lex: SWD(2019)392: Bulgaria: Technical Report https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2019:392:FIN

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