SOFIA -- The European Commission has issued a key set of recommendations to dramatically reform and depoliticize Bulgaria's justice and prosecutorial system, which has been a constant irritant to Brussels and millions of Bulgarians.
But their release, in the annual Rule Of Law Report, amid a government collapse in Sofia and just hours after an unexpected flare-up among European parliamentarians probing corruption allegations against powerful Bulgarian political forces doesn't augur well for early implementation.
Pro-EU Prime Minister Kiril Petkov's coalition fell apart last month after a junior party pulled out over infrastructure spending and efforts to resolve Bulgaria's veto over EU accession talks for neighbor North Macedonia, in addition to regional strains over the Russian war on Ukraine.
The result means Bulgaria could soon face its fourth national elections in the span of about a year and a half if desperate coalition efforts fail, as appears likely.
A former justice minister, Hristo Ivanov, whose Democratic Bulgaria party could still get a mandate to try to form a government, warned in an interview with RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service recently that repeatedly inconclusive national elections threatened to "drag Bulgarian society into the madhouse."
But the furor over a Czech deputy's conduct of a budget committee meeting in the European Parliament might have posed the more immediate challenge to getting buy-in among Bulgarians for the EU's recommendations.
Bulgarian media quickly latched onto Czech Tomas Zdechovsky's statements as the acting chairman of the parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control that attempted to put to rest two years of speculation about scandalous -- and dubious -- images of opposition GERB party leader and former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
A heated exchange broke out after Zdechovsky surprised committee members by quoting letters from Bulgarian prosecutors to seemingly swat away the images' credibility just hours before the European Commission issued its report.
One of the photographs released in 2020 purports to show a gun, gold bars, euro banknotes, and a black envelope next to Borisov's bed.
"This is an obvious attempt by the [European People's Party] to use the EU institutions in a scandalous attempt to clear the image of the former Bulgarian prime minister from the very serious accusations of corruption that led to his loss in the parliamentary elections last year," said Tsvetelina Penkova, a Bulgarian deputy in the European Parliament.
Borisov's GERB party, the second largest in Bulgaria's parliament, walked away this week from President Rumen Radev's mandate that would have allowed it to form a new government without new elections.
It is also part of the same conservative European People's Party grouping within European institutions that includes Zdechovsky and his Czech Christian Democratic Union party.
Doubts About Rule Of Law
The European Commission's annual Rule Of Law report considers both positive and negative developments in safeguarding the rule of law across the EU and within each member state.
In its third such report, issued on July 13, the commission urged "consistent actions" to punish corruption at the highest levels of power and issued six specific recommendations for Bulgaria to improve its own climate.
Czech MEP Tomas Zdechovsky: "I can declare that I am maximally neutral, transparent, and I will never [play]...political games."
They included ending long-standing practices like the noncompetitive promotion of judges, combating "political influence" in a judicial oversight body known as the Supreme Judicial Council, and implementing steps to ensure the integrity of budget sector officials, especially among police and the justice system.
But the drama in the European Parliament highlighted the long arm of the country's politically connected prosecutorial leadership, despite years of pressure from Brussels to remedy what critics regard as a compromised prosecutorial process.
Bulgarian Prosecutor-General Ivan Geshev and his perceived lack of accountability have been singled out by the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and other institutions as a particularly urgent area of necessary reform.
The letters that Zdechovsky quoted from to discredit compromising images of Borisov were signed by Geshev's deputy, Plamena Tsvetanova.
Gold Bars, Cash, And A Gun
The photo scandal played out over several years like a tepid spy story.
Images were circulated in 2020 purporting to show a handgun, stacks of 500 euro bills, and gold bars on and in a bedside table in Borisov's residence in Sofia, known as Boyana. Another image appeared to show Borisov asleep on the same bed.
Although their authenticity was questioned from the start, much of the resulting furor revolved around long-running accusations of entrenched corruption among GERB and other officials.
Borisov responded with cautiously worded denials and called the images "kompromat." He also accused political rival Radev, a retired military commander turned president, of involvement, including through the possible use of an unmanned drone to take photos of the inside of his bedroom.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev
Radev, who had frequently publicly feuded with Borisov, strongly denied any role in the affair.
Subsequent media investigations and even prosecutors' efforts suggested there were manipulations and inconsistencies, but they never demonstrated conclusively that the images and a related video were fakes.
Sofia city prosecutors announced in late 2020 that they had halted their investigation into the images, since they couldn't determine their author or authors. But even then, they noted inconsistencies in some of the images, including changes to time stamps and digital identifiers. They even speculated that the images might be aimed at "presenting a certain negative image" of Borisov, who was prime minister at the time.
In November 2021, with the political stalemate seemingly broken in favor of a coalition led by Petkov, the bedside images reemerged and prosecutors hinted that their examinations cast doubt on aspects of their authenticity.
Enter The Czech
Zdechovsky chaired the European Parliament budget committee's mission to Bulgaria on April 11-13 to look into potential past wrongdoing by Borisov, part of a five-year probe that included suspicions raised by the circulation of the photos.
Acting as temporary chairman of the European Parliament's budget committee on July 13, Zdechovsky cited Bulgarian prosecutors' findings in the case to suggest that the images and metadata had been doctored, cash and gold bars pictured in the nightstand were impossible to identify conclusively, and Borisov was away on official business when at least some of the photos were taken.
Zdechovsky also quoted prosecutors' interrogation of a chambermaid at the residence who said she'd "never seen gold bars in the drawers of nightstands."
He said five "computer technical experts" had examined the images and, "in short, the examination showed that the photographs and videos have been manipulated."
Bulgarian Prosecutor-General Ivan Geshev and his perceived lack of accountability have been singled out by the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and other institutions as a particularly urgent area of necessary reform.
"According to the five expert examinations, their circumstances call into question the authority of the photographs, images, and videos," Zdechovsky said.
He cited "multiple discrepancies" in the banknotes and gold bars, including "in the color of the watermarks, holographic stickers, light, and shadow of the object."
He also said Borisov was away from his residence on official business on the dates when some of the images were shot.
'Inadmissible' Meddling?
Bulgarian MEP Elena Yoncheva alleged a "whitewash."
Zdechovsky was quickly challenged by European Parliament deputy Penkova. She said the sending of "selective information" by Bulgarian authorities to just one of the parties that took part in the fact-finding mission to Sofia was "inadmissible."
"Moreover, the information that you presented was selective -- it was not the whole document, it was just part of it -- and I believe the free interpretation of nonpublic documentation and correspondence leaves the feeling of certain bias of the committee...especially in a situation where Bulgaria's in another political crisis," she said.
She added that such perceptions "could be misinterpreted as invalid interference in Bulgarian political life and I don't think the EuroParliament has a position on that."
She argued that, on the contrary, the European Parliament had "consistently addressed the problem of corruption in Bulgaria" and urged transparency in committee procedures.
Zdechovsky cited his eight years of experience on the committee and responded: "I can declare that I am maximally neutral, transparent, and I will never [play]...political games."
He insisted that he had acted irrespective of any political context within Bulgaria.
Later, another Bulgarian MEP, Elena Yoncheva, alleged that some budget committee members were seeking to "whitewash" Borisov's image ahead of possible national elections to replace the current caretaker government.