The European Commission has made no decision about the date of release of its reports on Bulgaria’s and Romania’s performance in justice and home affairs reforms under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism imposed on the two countries when they joined the EU in 2007.
 
Cecilia Malmstrom, European affairs minister of Sweden – the country that in July assumes the six-month rotating presidency of the EU – said earlier that the report on Bulgaria would come out in September. Bulgaria goes to the polls in a national parliamentary election on July 5 2009, and several sources have suggested the report will come out only after the elections.
 
On June 23, Romanian news agency Mediafax reported Romanian justice minister Catalin Predoiu as saying that the EC reports would be delayed because of Bulgaria’s elections and Romania should take advantage of the extra time to speed up reforms.
 
Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted EC spokesperson Mark Gray as saying that the Commission had made no decision on the date of release of the reports. He was aware of Malstrom’s statement but could not confirm it, Gray said.
 
On June 22, the president of Bulgaria’s Supreme Court of Cassation, Lazar Gruev, said that he expected that the EC report would be "just in its criticism".
 
On June 18, Bulgaria’s European Affairs Minister Gergana Passi said that she expected that the report on Bulgaria would be "critical but not scathing" and would not, in spite of a proposal by her counterpart from The Netherlands, impose a safeguard clause on Bulgaria for non-performance in reforming the judiciary and acting against organised crime.
 
The CVM was imposed on Bulgaria and Romania when they joined the EU as a move to allow them accession while holding back on acceptance of the countries’ justice and home affairs systems. Valid for a period of three years, the CVM’s future will be decided largely on the basis of the forthcoming EC reports.