Storms brewing over Commission Bulgaria report[fr][de] 

The report, due to be published by the Commission on 23 July, is accompanied by one on the management of EU funds in Bulgaria, suggesting the freezing of EU funds earmarked for Bulgaria worth several hundred million euros. The country may in fact lose most of this money and even be required to return some hundreds of millions already allocated unless it can convince the EU executive that it can deal with EU funds in a sound and transparent way. 

Keeping EU money away from the mafia 

In this regard, the last sentence from the draft report on the management of EU funds in Bulgaria is particularly telling. It reads: 

"Bulgaria […] has to make the commitment to cleanse its administration and ensure that the generous support it receives from the EU actually reaches its citizens and is not siphoned off by corrupt officials, operating together with organised crime.” 

The draft report, published by EurActiv's partner in Bulgaria Dnevnik, also suggests that administrative capacity in Bulgaria is weak and makes serious allegations of irregularities and expresses suspicion of fraud and conflicts of interest in the award of contracts. It also mentions serious irregularities discovered after investigations by the EU anti-fraud office OLAF. 

The Commission wishes to highlight that the sanctions are in no way intended to hit ordinary Bulgarians but are instead designed to hurt a mafia which is depleting not only EU funds but certainly national resources too, a Commission source told EurActiv. 

A unique case 

Similar sanctions have never been enforced against other EU member states so far, Dnevnik writes. Technically Brussels would revoke Sofia's right to negotiate EU funding and decide how it is spent by withdrawing the accreditation to paying agencies. The decision will be taken in September. Consequently, Bulgaria may forfeit 610 million euros of Phare funding, 144 million of suspended ISPA (structural funds) funding and 133 million of suspended SAPARD (agricultural) funding. Sums already allocated could also be recovered by Brussels. 

No-confidence vote 

The parliamentary opposition parties initiated a procedure for a no-confidence motion against the government. It is expected to be voted upon on July 24, the day after the official publication of the report. The opposition also attacked the country's president, Georgi Parvanov, asking him to resign since one of the people investigated, Lyudmil Stoykov, was a sponsor in his campaign for the presidential elections in 2006, according to a leaked OLAF report (EurActiv 17/07/08). Parvanov reacted by saying that in no way had the presidential institution sheltered Stoykov from prosecution. 

The president also questioned certain changes made in the leaked OLAF report. According to him, a previous version of the text, from 18 June, did not - in his words - contain "political conclusions" about the existence of influential circles within the Bulgarian government and state institutions sheltering the criminals. He also asked the recently established National Agency for National Security (DANS),  dubbed "the Bulgarian FBI" by the press, to pronounce itself if there were indeed such official circles providing shelter from prosecution to individuals.