Corruption: Bulgaria still has much to do says EU anti-fraud head

FOCUS Information Agency - Despite progress made last year in fighting abuse of European funds in Bulgaria, the country still has a long way to go to meet EU standards, the head of the Union's anti-fraud office OLAF said yesterday (9 July), the EurActiv reported.

Presenting OLAF's 2008 annual report in Brussels, Franz-Hermann Brüner, the office's director-general, said Sofia "clearly has a long way to go" in fighting corruption.

"Some criminals are still dancing around us and the Bulgarian government, and I don't like it," Brüner said, identifying the courts rather than the prosecution as the weakest area. "Minor cases have been concluded, but not the prominent ones."

Last summer, the EU moved to suspend some €500m of funding for Bulgaria in the face of corruption scandals and Sofia’s failure to make sufficient progress on judicial reform

Published by Mike Hitchen, Mike Hitchen Consulting
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