EU commissioner urges Bulgaria to boost anti-corruption efforts
ELITSA VUCHEVA
28.08.2008 @ 09:13 CET
Sofia will have to step up efforts to fight corruption and crime following a critical report issued by the European Commission last month, the institution's vice-president and industry commissioner Gunter Verheugen said on a visit to Bulgaria.
"I call on the whole of society to oppose corruption and crime and support the government's efforts to make its administration more efficient," Mr Verheugen said after a meeting with Bulgarian premier Sergey Stanishev on Wednesday (27 August), national television channel BNT reported.
Bulgaria needs to present some positive news to improve its image, says commissioner Verheugen (Photo: EUobserver.com)
The country is still facing today many of the problems it was having 10 years ago - corruption, weak administration, a need for judicial reform, he added.
The two-day visit comes one month after the commission released its annual reports on the justice and home affairs situation in Bulgaria and Romania, with its tone being particularly critical of Bulgaria.
Brussels subsequently also issued a separate critical document on the Balkan country's spending of EU money and decided to formally suspend payments of pre-accession funds worth more than 800 million.
However, Mr Verheugen also gave Sofia some praise notably on a political and economic level where he said the county had met the EU's expectations and insisted the situation should not be over-dramatised.
"The [commission] report does not show Bulgaria's place in a ranking of EU member states, because such reports are beind drafted only for Bulgaria and Romania due to the worries about their accession. That does not mean that other countries do not have similar problems," he said.
To assuage concerns in some national capitals that Bulgaria and Romania were not sufficiently prepared when they joined the bloc, Sofia and Bucharest's accession package set out the closest-ever monitoring imposed on countries joining the EU.
The two have remained subjects to a so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism following their EU accession on 1 January 2007.
"If the EC were to apply the same mechanism to other member states, it would be an interesting picture," he added.
Mr Verheugen who supervised Bulgaria and Romania's EU accession as enlargement commissioner at the time also expressed worries about Sofia's image following the recent developments.
"I am concerned about the country's image. If only bad news comes from a country, this could develop into a spiral process downwards".
"There should be positive news from Bulgaria as well," he was quoted as saying by Bulgarian media.