The report of Sofia on the progress of in justice and anti-crime reforms provoked negative reactons from the European Commission (EC).

EC officials refused to announce their position on the report but the comments of certain high officials were critical, Dnevnik daily reported.

Progress made since October 2006 is insufficient and the reforms in certain spheres such as fight against organised crime and corruption slowed down, anonymous source from EC said.

Bulgaria is doing worse than Romania despite the current sharp economic crisis in the country, EC representatives said.

Bulgaria had to provide a report on the six problematic issues mentioned in the EC monitoring report from September 2006. The deadline was end of March 2006.

EC will present its evaluation of the work that has been done within the past six months in June 2006.

The Bulgarian report had to provide information on fight against organised crime, corruption among top officials, reforms within judicial structures and constitution amendments.

Interior Minister Roumen Petkov said that Bulgaria applied 297 sentences on charges of corruption and finished 1706 investigations. The full text of the report was not announced which puts under question its authenticity, EC sources said.