Bulgaria must stamp out the mob

Date: 27/04/06

Only one year ago it would have strained credibility to argue that Bulgaria would be lagging behind Romania in the two countries' race to join the EU.

But with the European Commission about to publish a report on whether the two candidates have done enough to qualify for membership on 1 January 2007, concern is growing that Bulgaria's poor record in stamping out corruption and tackling organised crime could jeopardise its hopes of entering at the same time as its neighbour. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told European Voice earlier this month that decoupling (setting different dates for the two candidates to join) was "politically possible if objective circumstances merit it". While for some problem areas, the EU could apply safeguard clauses (denying access to the internal market for certain foodstuffs or livestock, for instance) or withhold funding for farm support or regional development, Rehn has said that it would be difficult to devise "credible safeguards" to compensate for problems with the judiciary or the fight against crime. "The rule of law underpins the functioning of the whole society; thus it is of fundamental importance for EU accession," he recently told MEPs.

While he was guardedly positive about Romania's progress, his preliminary assessment of the situation in Bulgaria presented to the European Parliament in April was more sombre. Progress in reforming the judiciary was "not yet satisfactory". There were "ambiguities" in pledges on the independence of judges. And, he added, legal provisions against high-level corruption needed to be used "much more rigorously". While the government in Sofia had carried out organisational changes, the country needed to show "tangible results of investigations with concrete outcomes such as indictments, convictions and dissuasive sentences".

With the decisive report on Bulgaria's progress due on 16 May, Rehn has hinted there is a window of opportunity until the end of April for Sofia to prove that it can make effective use of the legal changes it has put in place. Unsurprisingly, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev argues that his government is getting to grips with the issues being highlighted by the Commission. He told this newspaper that corruption in the public administration "has been lowered" and he promised "concrete results" from recent investigations into organised crime. He highlighted a crime crackdown called Operation Respect which had led to the prosecution of two alleged gang leaders and a tough new law aimed at deterring politicians from accepting bribes.

Despite Rehn's tough language, other Commission officials and EU diplomats doubt that he will recommend postponing Sofia's entry date when he unveils his report. Instead, they argue, the commissioner is struggling to reconcile the near unanimous support for honouring the pledge to allow Romania and Bulgaria to join next year with pressure to ensure that they keep up the pace of reform in the run-up to and after entering the Union. EU diplomats are concerned that delaying entry by a year would mean a wasted year in reform terms as the candidates would not feel the pressure to maintain the pace of changes to qualify for the January 2007 deadline.

Certainly, even if Rehn and the member states believe that Bulgaria deserves to join at the start of next year, it will face a severe set of further warnings and conditions in a new report in the autumn, to prevent any further backsliding.

Article reports that concern was growing that Bulgaria's poor record in stamping out corruption and tackling organised crime could jeopardise its hopes of entering at the same time as its neighbour Romania. The decisive report by the European Commission on Bulgaria's progress was due on 16 May 2006.
Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'EU enlargement'.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Enlargement: Bulgaria http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/archives/bulgaria/index_en.htm

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