The European Commission has terminated the criminal procedure against Bulgaria, which was initiated due to incomplete implementation of the obligations to exchange information with the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS). The procedure against Bulgaria, for incomplete implementation of the provisions of Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA of 26 February 2009 on the organisation and content of the exchange of information extracted from criminal records between Member States, was initiated in 2021.
In the period from the announcement of the procedure until November 2024, the Ministry of Justice, represented by the Directorate “Electronic Justice and Registers“ has taken the following measures to ensure the work processes:
A new information system CAIS “Court Status“ has been implemented, into which data from the 113 district courts and the Central Bureau “Criminality“ has been migrated; at the Ministry of Justice;
Processes for persons with a clean criminal record have been automated;
A structured form of the criminal record bulletin has been introduced, which facilitates the automated exchange of criminal record data with the Member States via ECRIS;
Automated tools have been developed for the automated processing of information received on convicted Bulgarian citizens on the territory of the EU;
Work processes have been changed in order to process received inquiries more quickly.
The decision to terminate the criminal procedure against Bulgaria under the Framework Decision was taken at the meeting of the European Commissioners on March 11 this year.