In early August 2014 „Popov & Partners“ Law office was selected by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Bulgaria to perform public procurement named „Research and analysis of existing systems for enforcement in the EU Member States, research and exchange of the European good practices related to the construction of electronic system/portal for enforcement“. The research is in the framework of „Effective and transparent enforcement, integrated with national and European electronic legal systems“ implemented with the grant of the Operational Programme „Administrative Capacity“, co-financed by the European Union through the European Social Fund.

In the course of the implementation of the procurement and as its first stage, „Popov & Partners” Law office have studied and analyzed the existing electronic systems for judicial enforcement in seven Member States: Belgium, Estonia, Spain, Poland, Portugal, France and the Czech Republic. The aim of the study and the analysis was the identification of good European practices in the field of construction, maintenance and operation of electronic systems/portals serving the processes of enforcement of judgments and other enforceable acts.

Based on the analysis of the first phase, „Popov & Partners“ Law office prepared a special report with specific recommendations for exchanging of the most appropriate to the Bulgarian system of enforcement proceeding good practices.

The implementation of the procurement has finished with the organization of a working visit in the country, featuring the greatest similarity in the system of enforcement and the largest number of identified good practices – the Portuguese Republic. This is the second working visit to Portugal, which „Popov & Partners” Law office organizes on the occasion of the exchange of good practices in the field of justice. The first was carried out in December 2013 on a project of the Supreme Administrative Court.

The current working visit was also in the capital Lisbon and has been realized in the period September 16 to 19, as the Bulgarian delegation included two representatives of the Ministry of Justice – inspectors of the Inspectorate with the Minister of Justice, state enforcement agent and private enforcement agent, which were accompanied by representatives of „Popov & Partners“ Law office and an interpreter. During the visit were held meetings with the most important bodies and institutions in the process of enforcement.

Host of the Bulgarian delegation was a branch organization of enforcement agents – Chamber of jurists (Camara dos Solicitadores – http://solicitador.net/) as its Chairman personally welcomed the delegation and gave a presentation.

In honor of the Bulgarian delegation the Chairman of the Chamber organized a working dinner, on which pointed out that analysis prepared by „Popov & Partners” Law office is able to fully capture the highlights, advantages and challenges of the Portuguese system of judicial enforcement, in particular – the electronic control system and control of the execution process.

The Bulgarian delegation was welcomed to a meeting by the Deputy Director of the General Directorate of justice policy (Direcção-Geral da Política de Justiça) at the Ministry of Justice as well. The Directorate is responsible for the preparation of legislative acts in the field of justice policy and there are a number of responsibilities related to the information technology in justice.

A working meeting was held with the entire management of the Commission of monitoring of the subsidiary bodies of justice (Comissão para o acompanhamento dos auxiliares da justiça – CAAJ) – the body which carries out disciplinary, financial and regulatory control over the activities of bailiffs.

The Bulgarian delegation has also visited a bailiff’s office.

The work program ended with a meeting in the Bulgarian embassy in Lisbon on the invitation of the Ambassador Mr. Todor Stoyanov. His Excellency Mr. Stoyanov again demonstrated in practice his strong commitment to the development of relations between the two nations and managed to spend almost two hours of his busy schedule to meet the Bulgarian delegation and to discuss topical issues at the bilateral relations and cooperation in the field of justice.