Brussels Gives Diplomatic Advice on Spy Row in Bulgaria

Catherine Day, Secretary-General of the European Commission. Photo by ec.europa.eu

The European Commission has commented for the first time the raging controversy in Bulgaria over the future of forty-one ambassadors who worked for the communist-era secret service.

"The experience and personal qualities of the candidates are crucial for the European Commission in the personnel selection," Catherine Day, Secretary-General of the European Commission, said on Tuesday.

The statement came in response to a question by a MEP from the European People's Party, who wanted to know how the European Commission selects its personal and prevents hiring people, linked to the former communist secret services.

Catherine Day advised those who want to work at the European Commission not to gloss over facts from their professional biographies, because if suspicions arise Brussels will launch an additional investigation.

A month ago the Bulgarian diplomatic corps and the government as a whole were shaken by a scandal spurred by the disclosure that almost half of Bulgaria's acting heads of diplomatic missions were collaborators with the notorious "DS", or State Security, the secret police and intelligence service of the Bulgarian communist regime.

A special Bulgarian panel, investigating the communist-era police files, known as the Files' Commission, revealed that 192 diplomats, out of 432, who worked for the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry after the fall of the communist regime in 1989, had records of ties with the former State Security.

Among those 192, 41 (or 45%) are current heads of Bulgarian diplomatic missions, including the Bulgarian ambassadors in the UK, Germany, Italy, UN (New York and Geneva), Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Russia, China, Sweden, Romania, Norway, Japan, Qatar, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, Bosnia, Greece, the Vatican, Slovakia, Albania, Georgia, Armenia, and Venezuela.

The ruling majority in Bulgaria's parliament was quick to adopt a declaration, demanding the withdrawal of the senior diplomats on the grounds they worked for the communist-era secret service.

The declaration called on the government, the foreign ministry and the president, whose job includes appointing ambassadors, to sack the diplomats with murky ties.

Bulgaria's president, who was revealed in 2006 to have worked for DS under the code name "Gotse", however has made it clear he will resist pressure to sack the diplomats.

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