The main message of the European Commission interim report on the state of Bulgaria’s judiciary and law enforcement that will come out on July 22 2009 was that Bulgaria still lacked the political will to combat corruption and organised crime, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily said on July 15 2009, quoting Bulgarian Government sources.

According to Dnevnik, the EC has sent a draft of the report to Bulgarian authorities. It will be made public as Boiko Borissov is in the process of forming a cabinet after his electoral defeat of the current tripartite ruling coalition.

On July 9 2009, Bulgarian National Radio said that the report would not recommend invoking a safeguard clause in the country's European Union accession treaty.

According to Dnevnik sources, the report said that despite some of the positive steps taken by Bulgaria in improving the work of the prosecution and courts, the overall impression of Bulgaria's judiciary was that it was still slow, and sometimes unfair.

There was a degree of interference and influence on the work of certain prosecutors and magistrates, the report said, according to Dnevnik. At the same time, authorities have failed to publicly state their support for individual acts of fighting crime and corruption.

According to Dnevnik, the report said that well-known criminals were bailed out of custody with ease, or were given mild sentences which gave the impression that they were untouchable, while murders on the streets were still a common sight.

The current situation created a feeling of uncertainty within the public administration, the police force and the judiciary, the draft report said.

As a first success in the fight against frauds with EU funds, the report found the newly-set up special unit within the Prosecutor-General's Office. This according to Dnevnik sources, showed that when there is a political will behind them, law enforcement could do its job. There was some success in fighting organised crime where prosecution proved that it could be an active force.

The report, however, criticised the way appointments are made in the judiciary by the Supreme Judicial Council, saying that this has triggered public discontent. The report cited as an example the recent appointment of Georgi Kolev as head of Sofia City Court, Dnevnik said.

There was lack of objectivity in the SJC policy in making appointments, the report said, and that courts had failed to publish their rulings online as the law required.

There was a lack of progress in the fight against corruption in health care and education, the report said, and urged the National Revenue Agency and the National Audit Office to be more active in preventing frauds.

Banning cash payment in real estate deals and reporting loans in annual income tax declaration were one of the possible solutions, the report said.

The report  said that the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism would continue at least until the summer of 2010 when the next report is due to come out.

It said that Bulgaria's entry to the Schengen visa agreement area depended on its progress in fighting corruption and organised crime.

A separate report on Bulgaria's ability to absorb European Union funds will be completed by October. A similar report will be done on Romania which, together with Bulgaria, joined the EU in 2007.

In September and October, the EU member states will review the reports' outcomes and decide if there is a need for safeguards, BNR said. 

According to the two country's EU accession treaties, safeguard clauses can be invoked during the first three years of their EU membership, a period that expires at the end of 2009.