Fiches Belges

Summoning is an applicable measure according to the Bulgarian legislation under international judicial cooperation – established by law means of notifying natural and legal persons of their obligation to appear before the competent authority of the investigation or at a hearing, be it as a witness, expert, translator, interpreter or specialist - technical assistant, an accused/defendant person or another party in the process (e.g civil respondent, civil claimant and private prosecutor). Officials shall serve summonses, subpoenas, papers with the respective court, the pre-trial authorities, municipality, or mayor's offices. Service on persons deprived of liberty and on those remanded in custody shall be effected through the respective institutions. Service on minors shall be effected through their legal representatives. Summonses, subpoenas, and papers in the trial phase to a victim, prejudiced legal person, private complainant, private prosecutor, civil claimant, civil respondent, and their counsels, as well as to a witness, expert, translator, interpreter or specialist - technical assistant, may be served electronically with their consent if they have indicated an e-mail address.

EU MLA Convention 2000; non-EU - Art 7 and 8 of CoE European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (1959); Art. 178 – art. 182 of Chapter XV, Section I of the Bulgarian Criminal Procedure Code.

The authorities competent for the direct application of the measure are the respective local District/Regional Courts and District/Regional Prosecution offices – with regards of the stage of criminal proceedings. The central authorities competent for the application of the measure are as follows: -in the pre-trial proceedings - the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria; -in the trial proceedings - the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Bulgarian language or one of the official languages of the Council of Europe. With regard to promptness and efficiency, it is recommended the requests to be accompanied by a translation into the Bulgarian language.

A specific deadline is not envisaged. The practice shows that the fulfillment of requests usually takes between two and four months. The Republic of Bulgaria has declared that a summons on an accused person who is in its territory must be transmitted to the competent authorities no later than 50 days before the date set for that person's appearance.

The rules of the MLA Convention 2000 apply to the EU Member States. For the non-EU States apply articles 7 and 8 of CoE European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (1959) – the competent authorities are the above said central authorities.