Brussels Tells Bulgaria to Speed Up Reforms
Region Friday, December 19th, 2008The president of the European Commission has called on Bulgaria to speed up reforms, particularly in the judiciary, after it was stripped of EU funds last month for failing to deal with fraud.
“The reform process must speed up rather than slow down,” José Manuel Barroso said at a news conference with Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev of Bulgaria.
“We need a consensus in Bulgaria that treats the fight against high-level corruption and organised crime as issues of national importance.”
Brussels stripped Sofia of €220 million of European Union financing and said it could lose an additional €340 million if it failed to curb corrupt practices and political interference in the budget process by the end of 2009.
Barroso said the commission would issue a technical report on Bulgaria’s progress in February and a more comprehensive assessment in the summer, but added: “We don’t see yet the level of results we would like to see.”
Stanishev said the government would do all it could to address the deficiencies and argued that its efforts so far “should be assessed fairly.”
Bulgaria has opened several investigations into government officials and businessmen who are suspected of fraud. But it has jailed only one crime boss and has failed to convict a single senior official of graft.
Analysts said Bulgaria may lose more EU cash because deeper reforms are unlikely under today’s government, which has struggled to cut links between some officials and organized crime gangs.
Bulgaria’s opposition has demanded early elections because of the government’s failure to fight rampant graft and stop fraud with EU aid.
But that move is unlikely to topple the government, which has a large majority in Parliament.
It does, however, underline the challenges the coalition parties will face in an election next year.
Parliament, meanwhile, added to the glum Christmas spirit.
A decision by Bulgarian lawmakers to pay themselves around €340,000 in Christmas bonuses – during an economic slowdown and job losses – drew heavy criticism Thursday and even calls from a variety of groups to besiege Parliament.
Several environmental and nongovernment groups called for mass protests Friday to blockade the 240-seat Parliament building in central Sofia to demonstrate against graft, crime and the bonuses.
“We’ve had enough,” the environmental group For the Nature said in a statement. “We want a state without corruption, lawlessness and damage of natural, human and intellectual resources.
“Meanwhile, the parliamentarians voted to receive Christmas bonuses at a time of a financial crisis.”
Many companies and organizations in the country have decided to cut end-year bonuses and thousands in the mining and chemical sectors have lost their jobs due the global downturn.
The deputies voted Wednesday to receive 690,000 levs in bonuses.
The subject of parliamentary and ministerial salaries touches a raw nerve in Bulgaria – the poorest member of the European Union, where the average salary is 600 to 700 levs a month.
Student groups have also called for rallies on Friday, and police officers and farmers have threatened to hold nation-wide protests over low subsidies and pay.
Source: Balkan Insight
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