Bulgarian government must not undermine independence of national court of auditors

Brussels, 19/02/2014

Inge Gräßle (EPP/CDU):

Bulgarian government must not undermine independence of national court of auditors

In view of the first reading in the Bulgarian parliament of a law on the reorganization of the country's court of auditors, the spokeswoman of the EPP Group in the budgetary control committee of the European Parliament, Inge Gräßle (CDU, Germany) warned of “concerns over the Bulgarian court of auditors’ independence and credibility”.

“The current Bulgarian court with its three members is working on a very high professional level, has a track record of independence and a term of office until 2017. To convert it now to a nine-member political body, to make irrelevant any work experience in the field of audit and thus to politicise the court would result in a serious loss of confidence in this important organization,” Gräßle said.

“This is an obvious attempt to make the court politically submissive in a country where the EU Commission gave bad marks in its latest progress report on the fight against corruption and attested a general incompetence in the fight against organized crime. Bulgaria is a country in which the designation of important public offices is commented by the Commission in the last years as ‘non-transparent’ and ‘being led by powerful economic interests’. “We need to tackle this development and investigate the impact on EU funds,” Gräßle said. At a meeting on 28 October 2013, the budgetary control committee of the European Parliament had been able to experience the professionalism of the existing court of auditors.

For further information:

Office of Inge Gräßle MdEP, Tel. +32 2284 7868;

EPP Press Office, Lasse Böhm, Tel. +32 484 65 68 97