Justice minister-to-be Margarita Popova got the best possible endorsement from the European Commission, six days before starting her term.

Popova has headed the Prosecutor-General’s unit that investigates crimes against the EU financial system. On July 22, the EC interim report on the state of Bulgaria’s judiciary and law enforcement described the unit as "an excellent initiative". This is more or less the only time the word "excellent" is used by the report.

A draft of the report was leaked to the media on July 15, a week before its official release, and it was little surprise that Boiko Borissov, who had been designated by President Georgi Purvanov to form a cabinet, on July 20 nominated Popova to be his justice minister after "having confirmed her appointment with our EU partners".

As justice minister, Popova will now have the task not just to build cases, as her current job as prosecutor demands, but to complete reform of Bulgaria’s judiciary. To do so, she will need the assistance of three other institutions: the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Supreme Judicial Council (JSC), which is responsible for all top appointments in the judiciary. Effective liaison with the first two seems guaranteed since the ministry will be headed by Borissov’s right-hand-man Tsvetan Tsvetanov, and Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev already stated his willingness to meet Borissov’s six-month deadline to achieve substantial results against crime and corruption.

EC support for Popova’s appointment, as someone from the Prosecutor-General’s Office, also could be seen as an acknowledgement of Velchev’s work.

"For the first time, plea-bargaining procedures have led to the imprisonment of a few members of organised crime groups, which can be seen as an important message to the public that well-known criminals are no longer above the law," the report said.

At the same time, the report said that killings linked with organised crime were continuing and known criminals had not been apprehended.

The EC makes it clear that a lot needs to be done in reforming the judicial system and must be done by the JSC.  This reform is, again, linked to the successful work by prosecutors.

"Any progress achieved at the prosecution, for example in the fight against EU fraud, will be limited, unless the judiciary is further reformed and shows more commitment to the efficiency of the judicial system," the report said.

The report confirms one of the biggest concerns Bulgarians have about the judiciary - that delays in court proceedings are caused mainly by the extreme formality of the criminal procedure, "a certain passivity of the bench and the seemingly limitless possibilities offered by the criminal procedure law to defendants to stall the proceedings".

This formality forces investigators and prosecutors to concentrate on simplistic methods to obtain evidence and "to avoid complicated investigations," the report says, while at the same time commending some JSC initiatives for changes in the organisation of courts and in legal practice. The report also praises the work of the newly set-up Inspectorate of the SJC, which "has achieved an encouraging track record in the investigation of disciplinary violations and of systemic weaknesses of judicial practice".

As one of its main recommendations to Bulgaria, the EC said there was an urgent need for a full redraft of the Penal Code,  which also will be up to Popova as justice minister.
Otherwise, the EC said, "the lack of initiative from the legislature regarding basic criminal legislation represents an important shortcoming".

Overall, the EC report concludes that Bulgaria has achieved some momentum in reforming its judiciary but these steps have been confined to the technical level and had limited impact.