Svetlana Kalinova, a judge at the Supreme Court of Cassation, is a candidate for the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) under the professional quota. She named her priorities as an independent judiciary, protection for magistrates and better management of resources.

She also wants to improve how judicial bodies work and are made up. She wants to solve the problems with secondments and to protect magistrates from unfounded public attacks.

Kalinova says the council needs integrity, mutual trust and the ability to defend professional positions with arguments.

The judiciary's budget should rest on specific needs and steps for sensible spending, she says. The council must also defend the money it asks for convincingly before the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly. She says there must also be predictable rules on pay for magistrates and court staff.

Kalinova says some of the problems cannot be solved by the SJC alone, because they need changes to the law. She says the court system should be organised to use resources sensibly while letting courts fully carry out their functions.