 Honorable Minister of Justice,
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests and Colleagues,
Media representatives:
On behalf of the World Bank, I welcome you to the public dissemination of our most recent analytical report: on “Resourcing the Judiciary for Performance and Accountability.” I am convinced we will be having very interesting presentations and discussions, but first of all I would like to express our huge debt of gratitude to Minister Tacheva and her team in the Ministry of Justice; the Supreme Judicial Council and its staff; and Minister Oresharski and his team in the Ministry of Finance – without their encouragement, support and advice this report could not have been produced. We also thank various stakeholders inside and outside the Judiciary, many of whose representatives are here today, for contributing to, encouraging and commenting on this report. All shortcomings of the report are, as usual, our responsibility.
I would like to make only four points for your consideration:
• First, this is the most comprehensive analysis to date by the World Bank for any country’s judiciary – and we are delighted by level of attention the report has received from Bulgarian policymakers and all interested in a well performing Judiciary. We applaud the concrete steps being taken by the authorities to implement the report’s key suggestions, and we look forward to the release of Bulgaria’s updated Judicial Reform Strategy within this year, as well as to the 2009 judiciary budget prepared on a consultative basis between the Supreme Judicial Council, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance. At the same time, we can look back to the concrete judicial reform achievements that Bulgaria should justly be proud of, and I will cite only two examples: the introduction of private enforcement agents and the reforms in legal aid.
• Second, Bulgaria, as an EU member state, will remain firmly in charge of its own judicial modernization agenda. Thus, Bulgaria’s policymakers – and no one else - will decide the appropriate balance between judicial independence and judicial accountability. Independence and accountability are the twin pillars of a well-functioning judiciary in any country. And a judiciary’s resources and performance indicators reflect how well it does on independence and accountability, which together are so important for good governance, a conducive business climate, sustained economic growth and the protection of every citizen’s rights. Balancing judicial independence with accountability has been, or is, a challenge in many countries, as it is in Bulgaria, and resolving this is always a difficult process. I applaud the Honorable Minister’s vision expressed just now, that today’s event and the public release of the World Bank report represent a form of accountability by the Ministry of Justice before the public, as an enterprise in support of transparency and as a way to outline the impending tasks and goals of judicial reform.
• Third, further modernization of Bulgaria’s judiciary will depend on continued collaboration between all stakeholders, especially policy-level consensus between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature. We see this process continue and gather further momentum, and would be delighted to provide continued support.
• Fourth, we know that an effective judiciary alone is not sufficient for the administration of justice: the police, correctional and related services are also necessary for an effective state, strong development outcomes and protection of human rights. This demands attention to the justice sector as a whole.
In conclusion: The World Bank is privileged to have had the opportunity to partner with the Bulgarian authorities on this report. We stand ready, as always, to support Bulgaria in any way needed.
Thank you!
|
RSS