The European Commission will come up with an oral presentation on Bulgaria's progress in the spheres of justice and home affairs in July, according to Zinaida Zlatanova, Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

Zlatanova, as cited by mediapool.bg, made clear that the oral presentation on Bulgaria had been included in the official agenda of the July 18 sitting of the working group of the EU Council.

The upcoming July 18 report will be the second oral presentation of the EC to the EU Council in 2013.

The first oral report was presented in February, when the EC made an overview of a series of scandalous appointments at key posts in Bulgaria's judicial system and the Constitutional Court, KS, implemented thanks to the direct or indirect intervention of the then ruling center-right party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB.

EU-level discussions then focused on the nomination of Veneta Markovska for Constitutional Court Judge, the appointment of Sotir Tsatsarov as Chief Prosecutor, and the dismissal of Judge Miroslava Todorova.

Bulgaria's government came under increased pressure after Monday's joint statement of the Ambassadors of Germany and France in which they insisted that the oligarchic model of governance was incompatible with EU membership.

"The way to prove the Ambassadors wrong is by taking steps promoting the interests of citizens, rather than political parties," Zlatanova commented.

She suggested that Bulgaria could only prove Philippe Autie and Matthias Hoepfner wrong by achieving consensus on the most pressing issues.

Stressing that she had plenty of experience in interpreting that kind of messages, Zlatanova drew attention to the fact that the two diplomats were referring to "a model of governance," meaning that the problem had been around for quite some time, which had become a cause for concern for Bulgaria's European partners.

Zlatanova called on political parties to refrain from exchanging mutual accusations over adopting inept models of governance.

"To me, the only way to respond to these worries, which are also shared by Bulgarian citizens, involves parties and politicians taking steps which benefit society," she added.

In early 2013, Bulgaria narrowly escaped an extraordinary official report under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism amid warnings by the EC that it was very likely.

The oral presentation on July 18 is to include the government's contribution to the controversial appointment of Delyan Peevski as head of the State Agency for National Security (DANS), as well as the series of scandals concerning illegal wiretapping.

The next official CVM report of the EC on Bulgaria's progress in the spheres of justice and home affairs is due in end-2013.

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