EU: Bulgaria Has Made Some Progress on Justice, More Needed

The February report -- released by Brussels on Wednesday -- focuses on the technical implementation of recommendations made in an annual report in July, and does not contain political assessments of the situation in Bulgaria, EC Spokesperson Mark Gray stressed at a news conference in Brussels.

The Commission's reports under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) are published twice a year to monitor Bulgaria's post-EU accession progress in certain problem areas, namely justice and home affairs.

"Today's report points to a number of main developments in response to the recommendations issued by the Commission in the last report. For example, the new specialized court and prosecution office for organized crime have started work, the Commission for the Identification and Forfeiture of Criminal Assets has delivered significant results and the newly established commission to identify and sanction conflicts of interest has taken its first decisions," states the EC report.

In addition, it points out that Bulgaria initiated measures to improve judicial practice, the organization of prosecution services and cooperation between different authorities.

The report also points to areas where further progress is expected in the coming months. These include adopting asset forfeiture legislation, taking a more comprehensive approach in reforming judicial and investigative practice, enhancing the role of the Supreme Judicial Council in the reform of the judiciary and achieving convincing results in the fight against corruption and organised crime.

The EC report says that "developments in Bulgaria over recent months point to a need for stronger action in a number of areas to implement the Commission's recommendations."

According to the European Commission, Bulgaria needs to make further efforts in the coming months "in order to demonstrate convincing results and to contribute to the Commission's overall assessment in summer 2012 of progress achieved by Bulgaria under the CVM since its accession to the EU."