The European Parliament appeared much less united on Thursday 8 October regarding the situation over the Rule of law and fundamental rights in Bulgaria than it had been the day before in respect of the annual monitoring of the Rule of law (see EUROPE 12576/3).
Although not going through with a large majority (358 votes in favour, 277 against, 56 abstentions), Parliament adopted the resolution tabled by the President of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Socialist Juan Fernando López Aguilar (Spain), on the violation of fundamental freedoms in the country (see EUROPE 12572/29).
The text denounces the “significant deterioration” of democracy, the Rule of law and fundamental rights in Bulgaria, even though the country has been plagued by anti-corruption protests for several months.
The resolution also gave the European Parliament’s “unequivocal” support “to the Bulgarian people in respect of their legitimate demands and aspirations for justice, transparency, accountability and democracy”.
The text condemns the “violent and disproportionate intervention of the police”, including any use of force against women, children and journalists, as well as the “ illegal and excessive audits” on private companies who support the protests.
The resolution also makes reference to shortcomings in the independence of the judiciary, the separation of powers, and the fight against corruption despite the fact that the country has one of the worst records in the EU and, together with Romania, is still subject to monitoring under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) (see EUROPE 12557/25). MEPs also condemned the violence perpetrated against journalists.
The EPP Group practically voted en bloc against the text, which indirectly targets Prime Minister Boïko Borissov, who is a member of the European Christian Democrat group.
On Monday evening, during a debate over this resolution, François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP, France) said that the text was implicitly intended to support political opponents of the Bulgarian Prime Minister. The ECR group and the Identity and Democracy group also rejected the text.
Link to the resolution: https://bit.ly/3d8N7yK (Solenn Paulic)