January 2 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's president Rumen Radev on Tuesday vetoed the country's anti-corruption law passed by parliament in December, he said.
The provisions of the law do not correspond to its main aim - to ensure efficient fight against corruption, Radev said in a statement.
Although the measures envisaged by the act are indeed necessary, they are insufficient to fight corruption in the way expected by the Bulgarian public, he said, adding that in its current form, the proposed legislation does not correspond to basic constitutional principles.
Bulgaria ranked lowest among EU member states in the latest edition of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index issued in early 2017.
In November 2017, the European Commission said that Bulgaria has made significant progress in amending the legal framework regarding high-level corruption but final outcomes of reforms still remain to be seen, notably in areas requiring legislative action.
“While the Commission cannot yet conclude that any of the benchmarks are satisfactorily fulfilled, it remains of the opinion that, with a continued political steer and a determination to advance the reform, Bulgaria should be able to fulfil the outstanding recommendations, and therefore satisfactorily meet the CVM benchmarks, in the near future,” the Commission said in a report on Bulgaria’s progress under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).
The EU’s Co-operation and Verification Mechanism for Bulgaria, set up in 2007, identifies six benchmarks and outlines the necessary measures that the country must implement in that regard. The six benchmarks are judicial independence, legal framework, continued judicial reform, high-level corruption, corruption in general and organised crime.