On the 16th December 2011 the Conference Hall of the Supreme Court of Cassation in the Palace of Justice in Sofia housed a round-table discussion held jointly by the Justice Development Foundation and the Association of the Bulgarian Prosecutors under the title ‘Criminal Law Protection of the Public Finances
‘. The relevant occasion was the tendency Bulgaria to be criticised for being unsuccessful in prevention and fight against money laundering. The round-table aimed to initiate a professional debate on problems and obstacles which the criminal justice system encounters in applying the Criminal Code against crimes related to abuse of state and EU funds, criminal violations of the public procurement procedures, economic crime, white-collar crimes and other violations included within the broad notion of ‘economic crime’.
The discussion was attended by leading researchers of organised crime and EU integration policy in the criminal law sector, judges from the Constitutional court, 
prosecutors from all levels of the Sofia prosecution offices, judges from the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Sofia Appellate Court, investigators from the National Investigation Office, investigation journalists, representatives of research centers and associations dedicated to protection of human rights, among whom experts from the Union of the Bulgarian Jurists, Bulgarian Lawyers for Human Rights Foundation, Center for Liberal Strategies, Transparency International, National Union of Legal Consultants, Bulgarian Academy of Science, as well as representatives of the Embassy of Germany in Bulgaria. Special recognition should be allowed to the participation of members of the working group with the Ministry of Justice which is charged with the drafting of ne Criminal Code.
The round-table speakers presented summarized results from comparative legal research of normative gaps in the criminal codes in Europe in the area of economic crime, the impact of case law over the scope of the enforced criminal provisions, features of the mechanisms of criminal manipulation of public procurement procedures, basic issues of protection of the EU financial interests as well as practical challenges before the fight against some criminal acts against property rights and creditors.
Some of the leading conclusions outlined a lack of significant difference between the Bulgarian Criminal Code and the penal legislation in other EU Member States, also in the field of protection of EU funds.
The main contributions are available in Bulgarian here:
Normative Gaps in the Criminal Law Response against Financial Crime
(Iva Pushkarova. PhD, expert in criminal-law issues of organised crime, JDF) – Presentation; Audiofile.
Normative Gaps Created by Limitative Case Law (Sava Petrov, prosecutor in the Supreme Prosecution Office of Cassation, Head of Sector ‘Criminal Science Research’, Association of Bulgarian Prosecutors) – Audiofile.
Problems of the Criminal Law Protection of the Public Procurement Procedures (Bozhidar Dzhambazov, Deputy City Prosecutor of Sofia) - Memo; Audiofile.
Hristo Hristev, PhD, from the JDF presented summarized conclusions from study he had accomplished in 2011 which had been focused on the protecion of the financial interests of EU and its first part had been published in Thesis Legal Periodical, No 1/2011. Radla Stoyanova raised a discussion on problematically formulated provisions of assumptive crimes and crimes against creditors.
A number of practical questions found their answers within an intensive and lively discussion amongst representatives of different legal professions and confirmed the 
leading conclusions which had been reached by the studies of the JDF experts.
The expert team of the JDF continues its studies on the issues of economic crime which are planned to conclude by the end of 2012.
The Foundation expresses its gratitude to the Supreme Court of Cassation for the hospitality!
