The European mission for independent analysis and assessment of the work of the Bulgarian prosecutor's office is expected to officially begin on Monday.

The mission is in implementation of the decision for European analysis of the prosecution which was recommended in the last report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) released in January.

In the next six months, European magistrates and experts are expected to prepare analysis and issue recommendations which will be included in the next CVM report that is due to come out at the beginning of next year.

The first mission will last for five days, with the independent external analysis planned to continue for a total of six months. The number of follow-up missions and their length have not been disclosed.

Five magistrates from the UK, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands as well as two officials of the Structural Reform Support Service of the European Commission will examine the activities of the Bulgarian prosecution. Their findings will appear in a report which will be ready at the end of the year.

The visiting European magistrates are prosecutors specialised in the investigation of heavy crimes and corruption.

On Monday, the European magistrates and experts will first hold a meeting with Bulgarian Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and later with Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov.

The justice ministry has already informed that it would not publish the technical task of the mission at the request of the European Commission.

The justice ministry firmly dismisses the possibility that political topics will be discussed during the mission.

However sources within the ministry revealed that there are plans for raising political issues concerning the “views for the structural and functional model of the prosecution as well as its place in the judicial reform road map in the context of the updated strategy for judicial reform”.

The start of the mission had initially been scheduled for the end of May, but was postponed at the request of Brussels.

The postponement was explained with administrative and personnel problems in the Structural Reforms Support Service.

The mission is viewed as “expert assistance” for improving the work of the prosecution which was officially requested by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov earlier this year.

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