Stanishev and Barroso met at short notice after an appointment had been agreed upon during last week's EU summit, diplomatic sources say.
The climate between the Bulgaria and the Commission worsened recently after Brussels withheld 220 million euro of pre-accession funding over accusations of misuse (EurActiv 26/11/08). In return, top Bulgarian officials accused the EU executive of double standards. The Commission rejected the allegations.
Barroso reiterated the Commission's insistence that Bulgaria must deliver "concrete and convincing results" on judiciary reform in the context of fighting high-level corruption and organised crime. The latest report on Bulgaria from the EU executive saw little progress, declaring that verification would remain "a long-haul exercise" (EurActiv 24/07/08).
"The reform process must speed up rather than slow down in Bulgaria. We need a consensus in Bulgaria that treats the fight against high-level corruption and organised crime as issues of national importance, and I would like to underline this," Barroso said.
Bulgaria is under pressure to meet a 22 December deadline for submitting information to the Commission regarding efforts to address outstanding issues. The information will be fed into a monitoring report, expected to be published by the EU executive in February. But as the main demand from Brussels is for effective sentences to be applied against high profile criminals, Bulgaria has little to report, the press in Sofia writes.
In what appears to be a novelty, Barroso hinted that politicians in Bulgaria were trying to use the EU funds issue for political purposes.
"We will not allow people to play politics with EU funds," Barroso said.
Commission spokesperson Mark Gray declined to elaborate upon whether Barroso was referring to a coalition partner in the ruling government, the mostly ethnic Turkish Movement of Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which is widely suspected of redistributing EU funds and projects in party circles.
After the meeting, Stanishev told journalists that he did not take Barroso's remarks "personally", hinting that the Commission was not focusing on his BSP (Bulgarian Socialist Party). But he "would not say" who was playing political games with EU money in Bulgaria.
Neverthless, Stanishev hinted that even coalition parties could be suspected of playing such games.
"Nobody, from any party, be they in government or opposition, should even imagine misusing EU funds," he said. Since 2005, Bulgaria has been governed by a tripartite coalition between the BSP, the DPS and the National Movement Simeon the Second (NDSV). Elections are due in mid-2009.
