EPPO: Bulgarian European Prosecutor guilty of serious misconduct

The College of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) had found the Bulgarian European Prosecutor guilty of serious misconduct, as detailed in the opinion of the Disciplinary Board, composed of high-ranking officials, or former officials, of the European institutions, EPPO said in a media statement on February 25.

The statement did not name the prosecutor, who was identified in media reports as Teodora Georgieva.

The statement said that the College of the EPPO deferred its decision on the appropriate sanction “as, considering the seriousness of the established breaches, and the high degree of responsibility of the function of European Prosecutor, it cannot be excluded that the sanction may be the dismissal of the European Prosecutor”.

Therefore, the European Chief Prosecutor informed the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission of the decision of the College of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office as well as of the opinion of the Disciplinary Board in the disciplinary procedure against the Bulgarian European Prosecutor.

In accordance with the EPPO Regulation, only the European Court of Justice may dismiss a European Prosecutor because of serious misconduct, on request of the European Parliament, the Council or the Commission, the statement said.

“For this reason, before deciding to apply a lesser sanction, the EPPO must put these institutions in the position to decide whether they deem it appropriate to request the dismissal of the European Prosecutor in question.”

EPPO said that the Bulgarian European Prosecutor remains suspended until a final decision will be delivered by the competent institutions, with remuneration withheld in accordance with modalities foreseen under the Staff Regulations.

“What does a serious violation mean? First – what does a violation mean? Second – what is a serious violation? Is there political influence from certain figures? And ultimately, isn’t it important to know exactly what happened?” Georgieva told bTV.

Asked what happened, Georgieva said: “I don’t know. You media asked many times what happened and you didn’t get an answer. I also want to get an answer. Giving information that is known to the entire Bulgarian people cannot be something secret. I can’t understand exactly what my violation is.”

She said that five judges from the Court of Justice of the European Union had said that there was no violation, but grounds for imposing a reprimand.

In March 2025, European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi suspended Georgieva from her position while her independence was being reviewed. This was an unprecedented event in the short history of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Georgieva herself complained of pressure from Magnitsky Act-sanctioned Delyan Peevski in the case involving alleged irregularities involving the Chiren gas storage facility, which came as a complement to her revelations about witness purges and sabotage by Bulgarian authorities of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’s investigations in Bulgaria.

On March 12, about two weeks before Georgieva’s suspension, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office  announced that it was launching an investigation into the case and assigning it to the Anti-Corruption Commission, the recently-abolished body.

It was supposed to take statements from everyone involved, as well as commission “an expert report to establish whether the people talking in the distributed video are the same people, one of whom allegedly gives 10 000 leva per month to the other.”

It is not clear what became of this investigation.

There is still no official information on whether and how the investigation into the fire that killed Georgieva’s mother in a village near Pleven has been concluded. This investigation was assigned to the national investigation.

(Photo: Blogtrepeneur, via Wikimedia Commons)