Bulgarian PM: We Will Fulfill Our EU Commitments

Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, says the EC report on Bulgaria under CVM is objective, well-meaning and helpful. Photo by BGNES

Private and business donations to the Bulgarian Interior Ministry will be banned from now on, and the institution will receive support only from the State budget.

The statement was made Thursday by Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, in an interview for the morning show of the TV channel bTV, and came in the aftermath of the annual report on Bulgaria of the European Commission under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, CVM.

In the report, donations to the police were listed among the many shortcomings of the Bulgarian judicial system and home affairs.

It was reported in the media a couple of months ago that the Interior Ministry had collected from private donors over BGN 6.5 M just in the course of three months, with some donors being people under investigation.

Borisov explained the practice has been implemented for over 22 years now, but since Brussels is against it, it must be eliminated, adding he had asked Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, to write a report to the EU with explanations on the issue and to provide an exact amount of the donations to be, from now on, funded by the State budget.

The PM reiterated the EC report is objective, well-meaning and helpful since it has concrete recommendations and can be used as an action plan.

On Wednesday, Borisov said the following about the report: "Bulgaria is assessed by the EC as "a hardworking student, who has the will and the desire, but not yet enough knowledge and skills."

Regarding the recently rejected by the Parliament Bill for Forfeiture of Assets Acquired through Illegal Activities without the need of conviction, the PM said it must be passed since the EC insists on it. The Bill failed to pass in plenary hall after it became clear that 40 Members of the Parliament from Borisov's ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party were not in attendance.

"I told them yesterday – if we want to get rid of CVM, we must fulfill our commitments. I am still worried that this forfeiture can be used as a tool for political retribution, so I told the Justice Minister to iron out all these details," Borisov explained.

He announced that there will be no changes in the cabinet.

On the subject of the upcoming no-confidence vote against the cabinet on the grounds of failures in the security sector and delayed entry in the Schengen zone, the PM stated he felt sorry for the leader of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), Martin Dimitrov, because he had been forced to vote on the side of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, blaming the leader of the other right-wing formation – Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, DSB, Ivan Kostov, of trying to protect the Socialists. UDF and DSB together form the parliamentary group of the Blue Coalition.

When asked if it was right to count on the so-called independent MPs, all people who have defected from their parties and parliamentary groups, Borisov said he did not see anything wrong in GERB trying to secure their majority, especially after several parties lied to them by promising support only to withdraw it later.

On Wednesday, 12 independent MPs officially declared their support for GERB and the cabinet.

In the interview, Borisov informed all of the State subsidies given to the above mentioned MPs for being elected on the ballot of a particular party have been donated to sick children, but failed to offer the names and the number of these MPs.

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