Sofia's Central Military Club will host an international conference on 15 October marking the Constitutional Court's 35th anniversary. The event's theme is "The role of constitutional courts in safeguarding the rule of law", the court said.
Court chair Pavlina Panova will open the conference. Speakers welcoming participants in Sofia include Venice Commission deputy chair Eirik Holmøyvik, EU Court of Justice judge Alexander Kornezov, EU General Court judge Mariyana Kancheva, and European Court of Human Rights judge Diana Kovacheva. EU Court of Justice president Koen Lenaerts and European Court of Human Rights president Mattias Guyomar will address the conference by video.
Constitutional courts from 31 countries across Europe, Asia and Africa will send official representatives and delegations. The conference will run in three panels, with more than 50 delegates and officials taking part, chaired by constitutional judges Yanaki Stoilov, Galina Toneva and Nevin Feti.
Participants will discuss how constitutional courts choose their members, how their independence is guaranteed, whether other state bodies carry out their rulings, and how they work during a crisis.
Countries sending representatives include Austria, Azerbaijan, Albania, Algeria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, Hungary, Finland and Montenegro.
The October conference closes a series of events marking the anniversary and the growth of constitutional justice in Bulgaria. The series began in April with celebrations of Bulgarian Constitution Day in Veliko Tarnovo.