“Over the past 2-years, together, we have overcome many challenges that we faced for the first time; we had to be bold and innovate in project implementation – in a short timeframe, without prior clarity on the immediate impact, but with faith in the ultimate success.”
With these words, the NIJ Director Ms. Miglena Tacheva opened the press conference dedicated to the results achieved under the project “Modern learning environment for judges, prosecutors, investigating magistratres and other legal professionals”, implemented with the support of the Justice Programme of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021. The event took place on 14 March 2023 in Hall 201 of the National Institute of Justice.
Ms. Tacheva emphasized on the cooperation with the Ministry of Justice as Programme Operator of the Justice Programme of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and highlighted the commitment and the support of the Minister of Justice, Mr. Krum Zarkov, for the realization of the ambitious goals of the project.
Mr. Krum Zarkov, Minister of Justice and keeper of the state seal who is also Governor of the Programme Operator of the Justice Programme, made opening remarks at the conference. 45 representatives of the professional community – judges, prosecutors, court officials and experts took part in the public event.
The institutional partner of the project, the Norwegian Courts Administration, was represented by the Head of the Secretariat, Ivar Arnstad, who stated that “we all have something to learn from each other” and noted the high level of professionalism in the implementation of the project as a key factor in achieving the objectives of the Justice Programme of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism.
The Chairperson of the Plovdiv Court of Appeal, Ms. Magdalina Ivanova and the prosecutors Nina Velichkova and Radoslav Lazarov from the Varna District Prosecutor’s Office joined the press conference online, directly from the respective shared training spaces, equipped under the project. “Since the beginning this year, we have been actively using the equipped court room # 215 to organize experience-sharing activities and professional discussions” said Judge Ivanova.
The projects launched by the Institute in 2020 are worth a total of BGN 3 324 911 and are aimed at creating a modern learning environment in which the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights can be applied – through training, provision of learning resources and integration of best practices. As part of its efforts to modernize the learning environment for the Bulgarian judiciary, the NIJ reported the completion of the 13 shared training spaces built and equipped across the country and the training activities planned in them; the effectively functioning Forum on Human Rights as a full-fledged tool for planning the Institute’s overall training activity; the maintenance and upgrading of the online platform “Judicial Ethics”; the development of training resources for the different levels of the judiciary, in line with the judicial training standards adopted by the NIJ Management Board in 2022.
One of the achievements under the project, a new modern and interactive NIJ website, was officially launched on the day of the press conference.
