Bulgaria is at the top of the ranking of EU member states in terms of the number of cases in the so-called “enhanced procedure” (clusters of cases posing structural and systemic problems) at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The country is in sixth place after Russia (16%), Ukraine (15%), Turkey (11%), Romania (10%) and Italy (7%). Bulgaria is also among the 10 countries that delay the implementation of the decisions of the court in Strasbourg the most.

This is understood from a message of the Council of Ministers, which yesterday adopted a decision to submit to the National Assembly the Ninth Annual Report on the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in cases against Bulgaria for 2021. The topics of the report are identified in three parts. The first presents up-to-date information on the number of convictions for the past year, the number of pending appeals before the ECHR and a summary of some decisions of the ECHR against Bulgaria handed down during the year.

The second part contains general information on the implementation of the decisions of the ECHR against Bulgaria, including comparative statistical information. The decisions implemented during the year are indicated, as well as those on which progress has been made. The third part concerns main problems arising from the court's decisions and indicates the measures that the legislative, executive and judicial authorities should take for the successful implementation of the decisions and prevention of future violations of the convention and condemnation decisions against Bulgaria.

The report states that Bulgaria is in 14th place in terms of the number of pending complaints (623) and in 17th place in terms of the number of pending complaints per capita. In 2021, the ECHR ruled on 60 cases against Bulgaria, of which it ruled on the merits of 37. The amount of compensation paid under judgments of the ECHR in 2021 is BGN 740,598, of which BGN 228,318 is due to concluded friendly agreements and unilateral declarations.

By number of cases in enhanced procedure (groups of cases posing structural and systemic problems), Bulgaria is still at the top of the ranking of member states, which puts it in 6th place after Russia (16%), Ukraine (15%) , Turkey (11%), Romania (10%) and Italy (7%).

At the beginning of 2021, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution in which it named Bulgaria as one of the 10 member states that are delaying the implementation of ECtR decisions the most, and stressed that additional efforts are needed by strengthen coordination mechanisms between different institutions.

In response, an inter-ministerial working group prepared a draft, and the government adopted a Roadmap for the implementation of ECHR decisions. The document outlined the most urgent measures of a legislative nature for the implementation of the decisions, from the competence of the executive power, the deadlines and responsible institutions for the preparation of projects for the amendment of normative acts were determined accordingly.

The report identifies the S.Z./"Kolevi" group of cases related to the ineffectiveness of criminal proceedings and the structural problem regarding the lack of a mechanism for independent investigation of the chief prosecutor as the most significant problem in non-implementation in the report. In fulfillment of Bulgaria's international commitments to implement the final decisions of the ECHR, an approach was adopted to link the indicated systemic problems with a commitment to reforms undertaken at the highest state level with the National Plan for Recovery and Sustainability.

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/Dnevnik