At a meeting held with Jean-Claude Mignon, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, President Rosen Plevneliv said that the post-monitoring dialogue between PACE and Bulgaria should no longer be applied. Jean-Claude Mignon is visiting Sofia to participate in the 41st session of the Parliamentary Assembly for Black Sea Economic Cooperation.
The Head of State pointed out that the monitoring dialogue held since 1992 and the post-monitoring between PACE and Bulgaria after 2000 played an important role for the democratic changes in Bulgaria, for the reform of legislation and for strengthening the democratic institutions. The cooperation with PACE also facilitated meeting the political criteria for Bulgaria’s EU membership. In the past over 20 years Bulgaria made considerable progress in all spheres that were the object of monitoring. At the same time our country is the only EU member state to which this monitoring procedure is applied, the President recalled. By virtue of a resolution adopted by PACE in January 2013, the post-monitoring dialogue remained intact and the monitoring spheres were limited to the reform of the judiciary, freedom and transparency of the media and amendments of the Election Code.
Jean-Claude Mignon, president of PACE emphasized that today the monitoring mechanism of PACE should be reconsidered. According to him, the aim is not to limit the application of the mechanism, but to ensure that the countries in which monitoring or post-monitoring is applied do not feel discriminated. In January 2013 Bulgaria was short of only two votes to end the monitoring procedure, Mignon recalled. Therefore, he said, we should consider not only “intensifying the assistance,” but also a more efficient usage of the Council of Europe’s mechanisms without it being considered a discrimination of one country or another. “The Council of Europe is our common tool and we should improve it together so that it becomes more successful,” the President of PACE emphasized. He added that a new speaker for Bulgaria in the Parliamentary Assembly of Europe will soon be nominated.
President Rosen Plevneliev and Jean-Claude Mignon voiced their common positive assessment of the mission of PACE for monitoring the early general election held in May 2013. As a whole, everyone agrees that the elections were conducted without any violations and the report submitted by the observers is objective and balanced, Jean-Claude Mignon recalled.