Is there something more to say about the European Commission's CVM on Bulgaria
euinside, May 16, 2010
In March the European Commission published with a little delay its interim report on the Control and Verification Mechanism (CVM) - a mechanism, imposed on Bulgaria and Romania as a precondition for their accession to the EU on January 1st, 2007. Initially the reports and the CVM itself were leading topics in the media and the society because of the perception that thanks to them Bulgaria was practically not a fully-fledged member of the Union. In the first three years of the CVM there was a risk of activation of a safeguard clause in the area of justice.
It's deadline expired however, and now there is no real danger for our country, aside from stopping the fight to make Bulgaria a state with a rule of law. Now 3 years later there is almost no interest in the issue. The publication of the interim reports, which usually set the tone of the main annual report of the Commission, led to the well known interviews, short articles in the newspapers and the creation of a new trend - politicians have started to talk about the mechanism in the context of how necessary and useful it is for Bulgaria.
Something is wrong
The feeling that something is wrong and that it should not be like this evoked the spontaneous reaction of euinside and the expert in Political Science Vladimir Shopov that something must be done in order to help the discussion to be returned on the top of the agenda of the society. Because in a moment when we are constantly talking about a judicial reform and a lot of ideas come up with no overall strategy, the CVM could be even more useful with its specific goals and its overall vision. In the end of the day the final purpose of this surveillance and of the regular reports is not just to solve one problem or another in the judicial system but to help Bulgaria become a real state with rule of law.
This is why we have decided, aside from paying serious attention to the issue in euinside and Vladimir Shopov's blogeurope, to organise a public discussion in the form of a round table, aimed at finding out what the benefits of the CVM are and to comment on its future as a corrective and a something that sets the right direction. We have invited representatives of the embassies of countries that seemed most interested, that were critical and impatient with what is going on in our country, to take part in the discussion. We have also invited people with expertise from NGOs, our colleagues-journalists, politicians.
The event will take place on May 17, Monday, at 1030. We hope to achieve our goal which is - to return society's attention on the fact that Bulgaria still has a long way to go before transforming into a rule of law state. A country where law is above everything and for everyone.
After the discussion euinside will present to you the results and the main achievements.