Bulgaria received further support and positive evaluations in its preparation for European Union membership over the past week.

Meeting with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi on Monday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reiterated his country's support for Bulgaria's EU bid.

"Berlusconi stated powerful support for Bulgaria's membership in the EU, and for accelerating the accession talks," Passi said after their meeting in Milan. "We hope that a year from now, during Italy's presidency of the EU, Bulgaria will sign the EU accession agreement."

During his visit, Passi also met with Lombardy President Roberto Formigoni, who proposed holding seminars to present Bulgarian businesses in Lombardy, and of presentations of the province in Bulgaria.

Passi said during the meeting that his visit to Italy demonstrated the will of the Bulgarian Government to open wide doors for cooperation with Italian businesses.

In an interview with Darik radio on Saturday, French Ambassador to Bulgaria Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge warned about the dangers of premature EU membership.

Bulgaria's premature entry in the European Union would not be in the country's best interests, he said. The union has many regulations and requirements concerning the free movement of goods and people. These rules have created a common market with strong internal competition, to which Bulgaria needs to adapt to, the ambassador said.

He also presented an idea to intensify the political dialogue between Bulgaria and France and about the preparations of a series of high-level visits between the two countries including visits at presidential and prime ministerial levels.

Another event on Bulgaria's EU agenda last week was the presentation of the country' communication strategy on preparations to join the union. The strategy will be printed out with the financial aid of the Dutch Embassy in Bulgaria. A Euro hot line is to be opened for questions about Bulgaria's European integration. The European Integration Directorate of the Foreign Ministry has also launched on their web site, www.mfa.government.bg, an initiative called Letter to Europe, which invites people to come up with a witty answer to the question, "What Should Europe Know About Bulgaria?"

At their regular meeting last Thursday, the Government endorsed an action plan for the strategy for accelerating the accession negotiations with the European Union, which covers the period from July1 to December 31, 2002.

Regarding the free movement of people, the strategy provides for amendments in the Foreigners Act, which have not been specified yet.

Over the past seven days, Bulgaria also received praise from the Head of the Bulgaria Unit at the Enlargement Directorate General of the European Commission Morten Jung-Olsen. He was in Sofia for the Eighth Meeting of the EU-Bulgaria Joint Committee last Thursday.

"Bulgaria is making substantial progress on all sections of its Europe Agreement," Jung-Olsen said.

The EU official also said that he and his colleagues were impressed by the progress that Bulgaria has made within one year and by the Government's vision and priorities.

That was the last meeting of the committee before the announcement of the annual progress report of the European Commission, which is expected in September.