Kritiek Barroso op curruptie in Bulgarije (en)
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has strongly criticised Bulgaria for its continued high levels of corruption and organised crime.
"Honestly, we expect more concrete results in terms of the fight against organised crime and corruption. And it is important that all the institutions of the state cooperate in that direction," Mr Barroso said at a press conference during an official visit in Sofia on Friday (28 March), news agency AFP reported.
While the commission president acknowledged that Bulgaria's government, lead by Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, is making efforts to tackle the issue, Mr Barroso stressed that the process is moving too slowly and the commission is getting impatient.
"Honestly speaking, we cannot constantly repeat that more needs to be done. Endless investigations, delayed court cases do not amount to justice."
"High-level corruption and organised crime have no place in the European Union and cannot be tolerated," he continued.
Mr Barroso also urged Bulgaria, which joined the bloc in January last year, to work more on its own initiative and not just wait from instructions from Brussels as the commission "cannot name the specific measures that need to be taken."
"The European Commission cannot be a judge, it cannot replace the executive and the judiciary," he said.
The commission president's visit to Sofia came amidst a new corruption scandal in Bulgaria, where two top police officials were arrested after alleged links with criminals. The case is under investigation.
"It remains a source of frustration that some Bulgarians are undermining the reform process," Mr Barroso said.
"No-one is more interested in solving [the] issues than the Bulgarian government and the people," he added.
Corruption and organised crime levels in the EU's two newest member states, Bulgaria and Romania, have often been criticised by Brussels, including in interim reports on justice and home affairs adopted in February.
Following corruption and fraud concerns, the EU earlier this year also froze payments still due to Bulgaria under pre-accession aid programmes SAPARD and PHARE.
The next commission reports on reforms in Bulgaria and Romania are due in the summer.
The two countries joined the EU on the condition that they would keep working on shortcomings in some areas - including the fight against corruption and organised crime - and be subjected to close monitoring even after having achieved full EU membership.
Opponents of their membership at the time argued that the two countries still had too much reform to carry out and that once in the EU, Brussels would lose its leverage to make Sofia and Bucharest carry out the changes.