Bulgaria and Romania warned on corruption
By George Parker in Brussels, Christopher Condon in Budapest and
Theodor Troev in Sofia
Bulgaria and Romania were on Wednesday warned by Brussels to step up
their fight against corruption, but a critical report was watered down
in an attempt to shore up reformers in the two countries.
The European Commission on Wednesday reported that the two new EU
members have failed to crackdown on serious corruption. In the case of
Bulgaria there was "insufficient" progress of tackling organised
crime.
But Brussels backed away from the use of sanctions against the Balkan
countries, and gave the two countries another year to meet the basic
membership rules of the Union. In the meantime hundreds of millions of
euros of EU farm and regional aid will flow into the region.
The language in the Commission's draft report was toned down this week
after a rearguard action by Franco Frattini, EU justice commissioner
and the Bulgarian and Romanian commissioners - Meglena Kuneva and
Leonard Orban respectively.
They argued that a highly critical assessment would undermine
reformers in the two countries, who are faced with unstable coalitions
and deeply ingrained graft at the highest political level.
One Commission official admitted it would also be hard to explain why
Brussels had not implemented sanctions - notably the non-recognition
of court rulings in the two countries - if it produced a scathing
report.
Mr Frattini was despatched to explain the diluted report to the media,
insisting it was "credible and balanced", telling the truth about the
lack of progress in fighting serious crime but giving praise where
appropriate.
"Our responsibility is to have a political discussion," he said. "We
have to evaluate the factual results and strike the right balance."
He said sanctions would only be applied "in exceptional cases" but
said he expected both countries to have seen through necessary reforms
by the summer of 2008.
But his generally upbeat assessment surprised some observers, notably
his assertion that "a lot of concrete results have been delivered"
including the bringing of suspects on high level corruption charges
before the court.
When challenged by a Bulgarian journalist whether he could name any
such case in her country, Mr Frattini was unable to answer.
Mr Frattini was accused in April by ambassadors from Britain, France
and Sweden of being too close to the governments of Romania and
Bulgaria, including spending the weekend on the ski slopes with the
Bulgarian interior minister.
The Italian commissioner strongly denies the allegations and says the
ski trip was a working visit.
Supporters of future EU enlargement fear the slow reforms in Bulgaria
and Romania could harm the club's expansion deeper into the Balkans.
Meanwhile EU cash intended to boost Bulgarian and Romanian development
could end up in the pockets of bent politicians and criminals, as
happened in southern Italy.
Additional reporting by Hugh Williamson in Berlin
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
