EU Says Bulgaria Achieves Progress In Graft Fight

Bulgaria`s inefficient and corruption-prone judicial system is often pointed out as one reason for the lack of results.

Bulgaria has made progress in rooting out graft and crime but must jail corrupt officials and businessmen to regain the European Union's trust, the bloc's anti-fraud agency OLAF said on Thursday.

In July, the EU issued a scathing report on corruption in its poorest member country and punished it by freezing more than 500 million euros ($626 million) in pre-accession farm and road aid.

Franz-Hermann Bruener, head of OLAF, said Sofia had since made structural and personnel changes in agencies dealing with EU money, trained staff to fight graft, started prosecuting officials over fraud and improved transparency.

"We have seen significant changes and a lot of effort over the past few months," Bruener told a news conference after meeting Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev to discuss progress. "The first positive results are there."

Bruener would not say whether Sofia's progress so far was enough to convince Brussels to release the frozen aid, adding the decision was a political one.

Prosecutors are currently investigating over 80 cases of embezzlement, but Bulgaria has failed to convict a single senior official of graft and has jailed only one crime boss.

Bulgaria's inefficient and corruption-prone judicial system is often pointed out as one reason for the lack of results.

If Bulgaria failed to issue convictions, those achieved so far could be thrown into question, Bruener and Stanishev said in a government-issued statement.

"Real convictions are necessary and we need to see progress," Bruener said.

OLAF will start reviewing Bulgaria's efforts every three months to make sure changes made so far will have long-term benefits and that Sofia is capable of protecting taxpayers' money, Bruener said.

New reports from the EU executive commission are expected in February on Bulgaria and neighbouring Romania, which joined the bloc in 2007.

The EU's July report damaged the investment image of Bulgaria, which Transparency International rated as most corrupt EU nation this year, taking the lead from Romania.

"We are determined to fulfil everything in our action plan and to clean the negative image of the country," Stanishev said.