Bulgaria's Parliament has appointed 10 members of the Inspectorate at the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) without any debates on the qualities of the 11 candidates and amid suspicions that the procedure had been pre-arranged.

Tuesday's controversial vote took place against the backdrop of repeated calls by the European Commission (EC) on Bulgaria to make judicial appointments on the basis of a transparent and objective assessment of the candidates, online news portal dnevnik.bg reported.

On Monday, EC Spokesperson Marc Grey reminded that the procedure for nominating judicial inspectors had been subjected to substantial criticism by non-governmental organizations, adding that the EC had also repeatedly come up with a similar stance on the matter.

The sole rejected candidate for a member of the VSS Inspectorate was appellate prosecutor Yuliana Katsarova-Chorbadzhieva, who had been nominated by independent MPs but failed to get the 160 votes required.

With over 190 votes in favor the new members of the VSS Inspectorate were Lyubomir Georgiev (investigating magistrate, nominated by the Blue Coalition), Petar Raimundov(prosecutor, nominated by the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party) , Albena Kuzmanova (prosecutor, nominated by DPS), Monika Malinova (prosecutor, proposed by DPS), Albena Kostova (prosecutor, nominated by nationalist party Ataka), Yanka Gocheva (prosecutor, nominated by center-right ruling party GERB), Tsoni Tsonev (VSS member, nominated by GERB), Vesela Nikolova (judge, nominated by GERB), Svetla Boshnakova (prosecutor, nominated by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP))) and Zaharinka Todorova (judge, nominated by BSP).

VSS member Tsoni Tsonev, who is also a member of the VSS Ethics Committee, initially failed to pass the support threshold, but eventually managed to win 177 votes, after Iskra Fidosova, Chair of the Parliamentary Legal Committee, requested a revote for reasons that remained largely unknown.

Tsonev played a key role in the appointment of Chairs of the Sofia City Court (SCC) and the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS), both of which caused a huge public outcry.

Apart from that, on Tuesday it emerged that Tsonev had covered up the fact that a candidate aspiring to become a high-level prosecutor had been subjected to criminal proceedings, which had been dismissed over an expired statute of limitations.

Tsonev had reportedly kept silent about the fact, urging VSS members to support the questionable bid.

The candidates for judicial inspectors were 12 at first, but Yane Yanev, independent MP and leader of the marginal conservative Law, Order and Justice (RZS) party, withdrew his nomination of Ivan Kolev, Chair of the VSS Budget Committee.

Kolev unveiled the "Krasyo the Black" scandal to the public, thereby preventing the prosecution from investigating trading in influence, for which he was publicly reprimanded by Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev.

Krasimir Georgiev, aka Krasyo the Black, was allegedly an intermediary offering the "sale" of top magistrate positions about EUR 200 000.

30 acting high-ranking Bulgarian magistrates, and 14 candidates for top positions (5 of whom already appointed), and 4 Members of Parliament have been exposed to have been in contact with Krasyo after the scandal broke out.

On Monday, a host of NGOs, including the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC), the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives (BILI), the Union of Judges in Bulgaria (UJB), the Center for Liberal Strategies (CLS), the Institute for Public Environment Development (IPED), the Program for the Development of the Judicial System System (PDJS) and the Access to Information Program (AIP) requested a suspension of the procedure for appointing members of the VSS Inspectorate.

They sent a letter to EC Secretary-General Catherine Day, Bulgarian Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, insisting on amendments to the Judiciary Act and on the cancellation of the "formal and untransparent" procedure.

Tuesday's vote was accompanied by a recommendation of Justice Minister Diana Kovacheva that "The judicial reform must be carried out in compliance with European rules and standards for transparency, integrity and professionalism, including the procedure for appointing inspectors at VSS and the forthcoming vote on VSS members."

Last week Minister Kovacheva received a letter by the EC Secretary-General saying that the EC would closely follow the appointment of judicial inspectors.

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