VZCZCXRO0699
RR RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHSF #0807/01 1830806
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 020806Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY SOFIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3927
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SOFIA 000807 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON SOCI BU
SUBJECT: BULGARIA/EU: EUROPEAN COMMISSION'S CRITICISM NO 
SURPRISE 
 
REF: SOFIA 678 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Beyrle for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C)  SUMMARY: The European Commission's (EC) June 27 
monitoring report, the first since Bulgaria joined the EU in 
January, criticized Bulgaria's progress on fighting organized 
crime and corruption, but stopped short of imposing safeguard 
clauses.  While acknowledging Bulgaria's progress, the EC 
said it will continue to monitor the country in six areas in 
the prosecution service and judicial system.  The government 
had largely anticipated the criticism, adopting a 
speak-no-evil tone that labeled the report fair and objective 
and reaffirming their commitment to continued reforms. 
Privately, though, the government was said to be disappointed 
that only three Commissioners (Bulgaria, Romania, and 
Frattini) took a softer line.  Continued EC monitoring will 
keep the government focused, but the report is not likely to 
provoke any additional personnel shake-ups.  It will take a 
more serious political commitment on the part of the 
leadership to achieve genuine, lasting reform.  END SUMMARY 
 
MIXED PROGRESS ON CORRUPTION AND ORGANIZED CRIME 
 
¶2. (SBU)  The EC report, focused primarily on judicial reform 
and fight against corruption, concluded that while Bulgaria 
made some progress, more needed to be done on implementing 
the reforms.  The Commission chose not to impose safeguard 
clauses on Bulgaria, but did propose continued monitoring in 
six specific areas, setting out concrete benchmarks as 
guidelines.  According to the report, Bulgaria largely met 
the first benchmark, removing any ambiguity on judicial 
independence, but the Commission reserved its final judgment 
until the judicial system law enters into force later this 
year.  Successful implementation of the law will determine 
Bulgaria's progress on the second benchmark, ensuring a more 
transparent and efficient judiciary.   The EC criticized 
Bulgaria for slow progress on enhancing professionalism and 
accountability in the judicial system, the third benchmark, 
pointing out that the judicial inspectorate envisioned in the 
March constitutional amendments is yet to be set up. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Heftier criticism was levied Bulgaria's fight 
against corruption and organized crime.  The EC judged 
progress on high-level corruption, the fourth benchmark, as 
insufficient, citing lack of rigorous and systematic 
follow-up on allegations against politicians and government 
officials.  The key test here will be successful prosecution 
and conviction of high-level officials involved in the recent 
corruption scandals (reftel).  The report acknowledged 
Bulgaria's progress on cleaning up corruption in local 
government and at the borders, the fifth benchmark, but urged 
more prosecutions and deeper probes into inexplicable wealth 
of officials.  Similar remarks were levied against Bulgaria's 
fight against organized crime, the final benchmark, where the 
EC again pointed to lack of progress on the unresolved 
contract killings. 
 
NO SURPRISE FOR THE GOVERNMENT 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  There were no surprises in the report's criticism, 
nor in the government's reactions.  Most high-level 
officials, including President Parvanov, called the report 
"balanced and objective" and saw the lack of safeguard 
clauses as justified recognition of Bulgaria's progress.  The 
ruling-coalition partners united in their view that the 
criticism was in the "tolerable boundaries," and the 
opposition parties resisted the temptation to overplay the 
continued strict monitoring.  European Affairs Minister 
Gergana Grancharova went a step further to say that 
fulfilling the benchmarks will take serious political will. 
Chief Prosecutor Velchev said the report contained several 
mistakes -- it listed only five money laundering convictions 
whereas the Prosecution Service reported twelve -- but 
overall saw the EC's criticism as perfectly valid.  Outgoing 
Minister of Justice Georgi Petkanov, whose Ministry received 
the lion's share of the criticism, stressed the fact that 
Bulgaria successfully avoided safeguard clauses or financial 
sanctions. 
 
¶5.  (C)  Bulgarian officials echoed these we-had-it-coming 
sentiments to us in private conversations.  The Prime 
Minister's foreign policy advisor admitted to us some 
disappointment in the report, suggesting that Bulgaria had 
done better in some areas, but acknowledged that contract 
killings and poor judicial performance were sore spots.  He 
noted that private conversations with EC Commissioners had 
hinted at giving Bulgaria a lighter touch, but in the end 
only the Bulgarian and Romanian Commissioners and Frattini 
had opted for that approach.  Transparency International's 
more positive report, released at the same time and showing 
Bulgaria's year-on-year progress, was naturally more welcome 
 
SOFIA 00000807  002 OF 002 
 
 
in Sofia.  The country's Prime Minister decided to take an 
extremely low-key public stand, barely commenting on the EC 
report.  (Heading into weekend showdowns with his Bulgarian 
Socialist Party and coalition partners to re-jigger 
ministerial portfolios, the PM was obviously saving his fire 
for the domestic political contest.) 
 
¶6.  (C)  Interior Minister Petkov told Ambassador Beyrle on 
June 29 that he thought the report's conclusions were 
"useful," since only "pressure from the outside" would force 
a change in Bulgaria's efforts to deal with crime and 
corruption.  Amb. Beyrle cited the Interior Ministry's 
failure to make a single arrest in connection with a long 
string of OC-related killings over the past two years, and 
asked if the report might at least lead to the long-promised 
replacement of General Valyo Tanev as head of the Ministry's 
Organized Crime Directorate.  Petkov said the change would 
happen within a month. 
 
¶7.  (C)  The Head of MOJ's Euro-integration Department said 
the report's criticism was justified but remarked 
sardonically that the new "verification mechanism" did not 
differ much from the pre-accession monitoring regime.  The 
lead prosecutor on the closely-watched Toplofikatsia 
corruption case said he agreed with EC's comments on the 
judicial system but expressed doubt that change will come 
quickly.  True reform will come with "change of personnel," 
he said, referring to the conservative ranks in the higher 
courts.  Both agreed that continued monitoring from the EC 
should keep the government focused on the necessary reforms. 
Most media outlets carried extensive -- but not saturated -- 
coverage, avoiding excessive finger-pointing.  The reactions 
of the political parties were predictable, with Sofia Mayor 
Borissov's GERB (the de facto center-right opposition) 
lashing out against a culture of cozy corruption among the 
established parties. 
 
¶8.  (C) COMMENT:  The EC's exclusive focus on organized crime 
and corruption will keep the government motivated on further 
progress, but genuine reform will require significantly more 
effort and political will.  While Bulgaria is making efforts 
to clean up low-level graft, the murky ties between 
high-level politics and business interests still remain 
largely untouched.  There is definitely some progress -- the 
fact that a powerful political player like Energy Minister 
Ovcharov was removed from his position on corruption 
allegations would have been unthinkable one year ago.  But 
more high-profile cases like this need to follow for the 
changes to truly take root.  In many ways, the EC (and many 
EU embassies here) pulled punches on Bulgaria's rule of law 
progress.  The report has just enough force to keep the 
government and political class focused, but insufficient 
(thus far) muscle to compel more accelerated and targeted 
action.  The Prime Minister is intent on making progress -- 
more for the sake of Bulgarian citizens, he says, than as a 
response to EU pressure -- but fractious partisan and 
coalition politics have so far stymied his efforts to make 
this fight the hallmark of his administration. 
Beyrle