NATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK CONCERNING THE APPLICATION OF CROSS-BORDER INSTRUMENTS TO PERSONS
WITH INTELLECTUAL AND/OR PSYCHOSOCIAL DISABILITIES IN LAW AND IN PRACTICE
2.3 European Supervision Order
The present research has not found any national statistics concerning the application of the FD
about the ESO at all and when persons with IPD are involved. All requested authorities stated
that the requested information requires legal analysis which they do not make. The interviewees under the present research were not aware of any such cases. No such cases have been
identified in the electronic case-law database either.
The FD on European Supervision Order is transposed in the Law on the Recognition, Execution
and Transmission of Acts for the Imposition of Restraint Measures, other than Measures Requiring Detention, enforced on 27 May 2016. 39 It does not contain specific provisions related to
persons with IPD and is applicable to them. According to Art. 4 the regional court at the place of
residence of the person is in charge to hear the proceeding. The court may recognise the act of
imposing measures for procedural coercion/restraint measures, issued in another EU Member
State, when the person for whom the measure was issued resides long-term or permanently in
Bulgaria, provided that he/she has expressed his/her consent to return to Bulgaria after having been notified by the issuing State of the relevant measures.40 The court may also recognise
the act when the person for whom the measure was issued does not reside long-term or permanently in Bulgaria, but has requested from the competent authority of the issuing country
that the measure be executed in Bulgaria. In this case, it is necessary for the court to notify the
competent authority of the issuing country that it agrees the document to be sent.41
The court hears the case in a single judge panel, in an open court hearing, with the mandatory
participation of a prosecutor and summons of the person for whom the measure was issued.
The failure of the person to appear when regularly summoned is not an obstacle to the consideration of the case. The court hears the prosecutor, the person for whom the measure was
issued, and his/her lawyer.42 The court may refuse to recognise the act of imposing procedural
coercion measures among other reasons when the judicial act was issued for a person who, due
to his/her age, according to Bulgarian legislation, cannot be criminally responsible for the acts
in connection with which the measure was enacted.43 The court in Bulgaria may send the act
of imposing procedural coercion measures/restraint measures to the competent authority
38
Bulgaria, Reply to the written request under the Access to Public Information Act № 95-00-53/22/28.04.2022 of the Ministry
of Justice; Reply to the written request under the Access to Public Information Act № L-1698/21.04 2022-2 of the “Execution of
Punishments” Directorate at the Ministry of Justice; Reply to the written request under the Access to Public Information Act №
93-00-96/21.04.2022 of the Ministry of Healthcare; Reply to the written request under the Access to Public Information Act №
1086/29.04.2022 of the Supreme Prosecution Office.
39 Bulgaria, Law on the Recognition, Execution and Transmission of Acts for the Imposition of Restraint Measures, other than
Measures Requiring Detention (Закон за признаване, изпълнение и изпращане на актове за налагане на мерки за процесуална принуда, различни от мерките, изискващи задържане) (shortly, ESO Transposing Act) (27.05.2016), available in Bulgarian
at: https://www.lex.bg/bg/laws/ldoc/2136803088.
40
Bulgaria, ESO Transposing Act, Art. 6, para. 3.
41
Bulgaria, ESO Transposing Act, Art. 6, para. 4.
42
Bulgaria, ESO Transposing Act, Art. 7, para. 2 and 3.
43
Bulgaria, ESO Transposing Act, Art. 9, para. 1, item 8.
20
SLAVKA KUKOVA