Reuters/Sofia
The Bulgarian government yesterday proposed a bill authorising widespread confiscation of illegally obtained assets in a bid to crack down on powerful organised crime and corruption. Justice Minister Margarita Popova said the bill was a key weapon for the new centre-right government, which won July elections, to fight crime and avoid punishment from the European Union.
Failure to demonstrate results by July next year, when Brussels is due to assess the progress of its poorest member state, may threaten Bulgaria’s access to 11bn euros ($16.48bn) in aid promised to it up until 2013. “With this bill the government proves its explicit will to fight corruption and ... we can respond to the criticism by the European Union that Bulgaria must tackle the problems with so-called unexplained wealth,” Popova told a news conference.
The new legislation, backed by the government but yet to be formally approved and sent to parliament, will replace an existing law on confiscation of illegally obtained assets which has been widely criticised for being too soft and ineffective. Brussels, which last year froze millions in EU aid to Sofia over fraud, has said conditions for asset-freezing were too restrictive and did not match the reality of crime in Bulgaria. Under the current law, an anti-crime commission can freeze the assets of people when prosecutors are investigating them for a wide range of crimes and confiscate the assets only if the suspects are convicted.
The new bill will allow the commission to launch its own investigations and confiscate assets of people who cannot explain their sources of income in court, even if the suspects are not convicted at all. Investigations will be launched when the discrepancy between the sources of income and property exceeds 60,000 levs ($45,980).
“The proposed changes are very serious, very tough ... and aim to meet public expectations,” said Rosen Kozhuharov, an expert at the Justice Ministry who helped prepared the bill.