Bulgaria EU Commissioner: Tension between Sofia, Brussels Eases

“The European Commission noted that fact that political will in Bulgaria gets already translated into actions,” EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said in an interview for Sega daily. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Right after the European Commission encouraged Bulgaria for the way it tackles organized crime and corruption, Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian commissioner for humanitarian aid, has commented that the crisis in the relations between Sofia and Brussels is subsiding.

“The European Commission noted that fact that political will in Bulgaria gets already translated into actions,” Georgieva said in an interview for Sega daily.

She advised the Bulgarian authorities to have an open and active dialogue with the European institutions and forecast that 2011 will be “absolutely critical” for Bulgaria.

“Unless we show we are ready to speed up EU funds absorption, we will find ourselves in a very disadvantaged position ahead of the next financing period.

The European Commission will launch the preparation of the next financial framework next year and Bulgaria should be ready with its plans, Commissioner Georgieva pointed out.

Romania was publicly criticized on Tuesday as lacking in commitment to fight corruption as the European Union released a report that also praised Bulgaria for the growing momentum behind its reforms.

The document, from the European Commission, detailed how Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, were fighting rampant fraud, corruption and organized crime.

While Bulgaria’s government was complemented on its efforts to root out serious problems, Romania was told that its performance revealed “important shortcomings.”

Bulgaria has established “a strong reform momentum” in judicial reforms and combat against corruption and organized crime, still too few cases are concluded in court, says the report of the European Commission, published on Tuesday.

This was the fourth annual report the commission has produced under the so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).

In doing so, it outlined some of the reasons behind doubts about whether either country was ready to become part of the European Union, which now has 27 members.

Bulgarians have pinned lots of hopes on the center-right government, which is expected to speed up the country's ability to use European Union funds, control the proper use of EU subsidies, prevent fraud and clean up its record with the EU.

The European Commission froze in 2008 a total of EUR 825 M in pre-accession aid to Bulgaria and subsequently axed EUR 220 M over corruption concerns.

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