The parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee has held an open hearing of the candidates nominated on the quota of the National Assembly to become judges at the Constitutional Court.

The hearing was broadcast live through the Website of the National Assembly.

The candidates Anastas Anastasov, Veneta Petrova – Markovska, Ekaterina Mihaylova and Tatyana Vurbanova took turn at the hearing in alphabetical order.

At the hearing each candidate was first presented by the Member of Parliament who had proposed him/her. All candidates were given the opportunity to present their views related to the interpretative role and the practices of the Court in establishing unconstitutionality of laws and other normative acts and in solving controversial cases of jurisdiction. The candidates have answered questions addressed to them by members of the Committee.

The present Vice- President of the National Assembly Anastas Anastasov whose candidacy was submitted by the MPs Tsetska Tsacheva, Krasimir Velchev, Iskra Fidosova and Tsveta Karayancheva, summarized his views of the Court’s future work in 3 points: continuity, independence, based on principles. He determined as priorityfor the Court’s work the optimization of its role as guarantor of the individual rights and freedoms, governance exercised in the frames of the Constitution, based on the principle of the division of powers and the rule of law and the independence of the institutions.

Veneta Petrova – currently judge in the Supreme Administrative Court was nominated by the MPs Darin Matov, Dimitar Chukarski and Ventcislav Varbanov. She noted that the way in which the Constitutional Court functions and takes decisions ensures that Bulgaria develops as a constitutional state and adheres to the values written in the Preamble -  loyalty of Bulgarians to the basic human values such as freedom, peace, humanism, equality, justice and tolerance.

The third candidate, Ekaterina Mihailova, who at present is one of the Vice-Presidents of the National Assembly, and who was proposed by Martin Dimitrov and Vesselin Metodiev, emphasized the positive sides of the Constitutional Court’s work – namely to enforce the supremacy of the Constitution, to set the limits and divisions of the different powers, to ensure the subordination of the state to the law, to prevent from abuse the different powers, to ensure the protection of the individual rights and freedoms and the defense of minority groups. In her view there is potential in enlarging the group of those entitled to refer(seize) to the Constitutional Court to include participants in elections, by giving them the right to check the legitimacy of the election procedure held, as well as to parliamentary groups.

Tatiana Vurbanova, at present judge at the Supreme Court of Cassation, nominated by Maya Manolova and Yanaki Stoilov, noted that the Constitutional Court in its capacity as a special jurisdiction, outside of the Judiciary, is deemed to protect the supremacy of the Constitution, the individual rights of citizens and the rule of law in the state.

Full information regarding the candidates as well as their concepts related to the role and practice of the Constitutional Court are published and can be found on the special link of the Internet site of the National Assembly under “Election of Judges at the Constitutional Court”.