Bulgaria was once again urged by the European Commission to show more comprehensive results in the fight against organised crime and corruption by pushing indictments forward.

In its February 12 2009 interim report on progress in judicial reform as well as the fight against corruption and organised crime in Bulgaria, an EC statement said it had taken note of "some initial steps towards structural and legislative reform taken within the prosecution office, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior" but that "these measures need to be sustained and further extended in order to deliver concrete results".

In the field of judicial reform, the Inspectorate to the Supreme Judicial Council has gained some operational capacity, the report said. "The Supreme Judicial Council launched an analysis of the disciplinary case law, started to examine why cases are sent back to the prosecution and set up a reporting mechanism on the movements of cases."

Further measures have been announced to reduce the workload of courts, improve the administrative management of courts and the transparency of appointments at management level. On the legislative side, the Law on Conflict of Interest has been adopted and the Public Procurement Act amended.

Regarding the fight against corruption and organised crime, the EC noted the launch of a pilot project on joint investigation teams composed of representatives of the prosecution, the State Agency for National Security (SANS), and the Ministry of the Interior.

"The next steps should be indictments for the serious crime groups targeted by these joint teams".

Steps to reform the Ministry of the Interior and to clarify competences in crime investigations have been taken but results are not yet measurable, the EC statement said.

"The Ministry of the Interior and SANS must still develop transparent procedures, in particular on the use of special surveillance means and the extension of the powers of investigating police forces".

The report also alluded to the lack of effective Parliamentary control over SANS. According to the law on SANS, a parliamentary committee has to be formed for the purpose but this has not yet been done, leaving the powerful agency answerable only to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.

"Effective parliamentary control over SANS must be established," the report said.

"Legislation on land swaps, party financing and the forfeiture of criminal assets is awaited. Legislation on conflict of interest must be effectively implemented," the report noted.

It also said that In order to demonstrate systemic and irreversible change, Bulgaria had to show that it had put in place an autonomously functioning, stable judiciary that is able to detect and sanction conflicts of interests, corruption and organised crime and preserve the rule of law.

"This means, in particular, adopting the remaining laws needed to complete the legal system and to show, through concrete cases of indictments, trials and convictions involving high-level corruption and organised crime, that the legal system is capable of implementing laws in an independent and efficient way".

The next assessment of progress by the EC is due in the summer. This will show how successful Bulgaria has been in addressing shortcomings in judicial reform. Bulgaria will certainly have to produce convincing and tangible results in its fight against corruption and organised crime.

The EC's reports under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) are published twice a year. They are based on contributions from the Bulgarian Government, the EC services, Member States and NGOs.

The last report, published on 23 July 2008, concluded that Bulgaria was committed to judicial reform and to cleansing the system of corruption and organised crime and had prepared the necessary draft laws, action plans and programmes. But the report concluded that there was still a clear weakness in translating these intentions into tangible results.

The report is available at the EC website.