EC: Bulgaria is Not making any Progress in the Fight against Corruption at the Highest Levels of Power

Bulgaria still lacks a sufficient number of final convictions for corruption at the highest levels of government. This is stated in the report of the European Commission on the rule of law in the member states, published today.

According to the document, Bulgaria has not implemented a large part of the recommendations in last year's report and for this reason the new ones are largely a repetition of the previous ones. The formation of the High Judicial Council continues to cause concern, and there is a risk of political influence on the Inspectorate's work towards it. The appointment of a number of independent bodies is also delayed.

European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders noted that our country is making progress, but emphasized:

"We are aware that the political situation in the country was very complicated. If you have continuous elections, it is very difficult to pass various laws and reforms in the parliament. Now we will see if we can go one step further and if there is capacity to pass various laws and put them into effect. You can see in the new recommendations that we want to make a lot of reforms. I hope that with the new political configuration, it will be easier to push some reforms."

The report notes that Bulgaria is one of the member states with a very high risk of concentration of media ownership. The lack of a clear legislative framework to ensure transparency in the distribution of government advertisements is also a cause for concern.

Denkov is satisfied with the steps announced by the European Commission on the elimination of SMEs in relation to Bulgaria and Romania

Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov is satisfied with the steps announced by the European Commission regarding the termination of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Bulgaria and Romania.

Commenting on the topic, he noted that the final decision on the abolition of the extraordinary mechanism for both countries will come from European Council:

"In other words, I should not at all be reassured by these positive findings, but we must fulfill in full what is laid out as opportunities in the coming months, so the next European Council, what depends on the government we will do it. We hope , that there will be enough constructive spirit and political desire in the National Assembly to conclude these topics, which are not implemented because of the recommendations of the EC, these are changes that we in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian citizens, the Bulgarian business, need in order to have supremacy of law".

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