Bulgaria bitter over Brussels decision on graft

Caught by surprise by the European Commission’s decision on Tuesday (25 November) to strip Bulgaria of €220 million in EU money over persistent corruption concerns, the country’s politicians voiced their frustration and disappointment.

“I am extremely disappointed with Brussels’ decision. We have achieved clear results. We have made conspicuous progress,” Bulgarian deputy prime minister Meglena Plugchieva, in charge of EU fund management, said in a statement.

“And all this in the context of a financial crisis, when the EU is shaking yet Bulgaria is stable and is not waiting for a financial injection. This decision is inadmissible,” she also told Bulgarian daily Standart.

Brussels on Tuesday said it would not renew the accreditation of two government agencies charged with handling EU money under the pre-accession PHARE programme, as it was not satisfied with Bulgaria’s record of fighting corruption and fraud.

In effect, this means the country has irretrievably lost €220 million, as no contracts for the sums have yet been signed and the deadline for this to happen is 30 November. Contracts for an additional €340 million under the programme have already been signed, but will remain frozen for now, Brussels said.

“I had organised the work at full speed. It was approved. I informed Brussels on a regular basis. Even the missions of Mr Olli Rehn [the EU enlargement commissioner] and the foreign auditors were impressed with the progress we had made, with the transparency and with our approach,” Ms Plugchieva told Standart.

“Is it proper that one thing is said here and the opposite in Brussels?” added the minister, whose portfolio was created earlier this year in a bid to tackle the shortcomings. She had also established an action plan to counter administrative corruption.

She underlined the administration had made “tremendous efforts in the past six months,” and expressed fears that the commission’s decision may have “stolen the motivation of the people who had been working without rest.”

“But we will continue to work …to protect the interests of Bulgarian and European taxpayers,” Ms Plugchieva stressed.

The commission said on Tuesday that while Sofia had indeed taken some steps in the right direction, “most of the measures are only a promise for future action and have not yet delivered concrete results.”

Speaking in Berlin the same day, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev also said he thought that Brussels’ decision was unfair and that it did not reflect reality.

He expressed concerns that Bulgaria was “not being treated in the same way as other [EU] countries,” which could result in serious political risks, notably in the context of the upcoming national elections, German press agency DPA reports.

Gergana Grancharova, the country’s EU affairs minister, had also voiced “disappointment” earlier, saying she expected to see “the concrete arguments” behind the commission’s move.

Several parliamentarians have echoed such statements, while the opposition has called for the government to resign and for early elections to be held.

Source of information: EuObserver
http://euobserver.com/22/27180