Supreme Judicial Council

Bulgaria's Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov is due to table on Friday new legal amendments which  the government says will bring about a judicial reform.

A document is to be published on the Justice Ministry's website to trigger a public debate.

No complete draft list of the proposed reforms has been produced so far.

The Bulgarian government announced on Wednesday the establishment of a National council on anti-corruption policies with advisory, coordinating and control functions to the Ministerial Council.

The council will be responsible for the development and implementation of policies on preventing and countering corruption, the government's press service informs.

Bulgarian MPs, coming from parties participating in the coalition government or supporting it, tabled on Tuesday the amendments to the constitution concerning the judicial reform.

The MPs supporting the changes are from the main ruling party GERB, its junior coalition partner the Reformist Bloc (RB) and one of the parties supporting the government - the Patriotic Front (PF).

97 MPs placed signatures in support of a set of proposed changes to Bulgaria's Constitution on Wednesday, according to Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva.

Bulgaria's ruling parties start collecting signatures in favor of a set of proposed changes to the Constitution and the bill is expected to be submitted to the Parliament's registry by the end of Wednesday.

The condition of the Bulgarian judiciary is not a strictly domestic affair and it of interest for France too, according to French Ambassador to Bulgaria Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes.

Speaking Thursday at a conference on the rule of law, he said that France was interested in judicial reform in Bulgaria because both countries were EU Member States.

Paties in Bulgaria's Parliament are widely expected to unveil Thursday the constitutional amendments sought by most political forces to boost efficiency of the judicial system.

The Bulgarian government is to establish a national council on anti-corruption policies, which will be an inter-institutional body with consultative, coordinating and control functions.

The body will be established as part of the implementation of the new anti-corruption strategy, which was adopted in April.

By May 14, GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria), the Reformist Bloc, the Patriotic Front and the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival should present the draft amendments to the Constitutions to all parliamentary groups, according to Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva.

Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) has failed in its third attempt to elect a Chair of the Sofia Appellate Court.

The only candidate for the post, Neli Kutskova, Judge at the Sofia Appellate Court, was backed by 9 VSS members, with four votes against and 6 abstentions, according to the BGNES news agency.