Bulgaria is expected to send the latest data for the European Commission's interim report on judiciary reform on March 31, Commission spokesman Mark Gray told Bulgarian news agency (BTA).

EC president Jose Manuel Barroso was briefed on the data during his visit to Sofia last week. European Union experts will travel to Bulgaria and Romania, both of whom have safeguard clauses written into their EU accession treaties, to assess the progress in April and May. The two countries joined the EU together in January 2007.

Brussels hopes that the next report, due in July, will show progress, Gray said. The report covers judiciary reform, as well as the fight against organised crime and corruption.

Bulgaria's feedback to the EC has been approved by the Cabinet last week and the information is now being translated, Dnevnik daily quoted the EC representation in Sofia spokesperson Betina Zhoteva as saying.

Suspicions of malfeasance have prompted the EC to freeze funds allocated under the Sapard, Phare and Ispa pre-accession aid programmes in recent months. Local media have speculated that a similar fate awaited the structural funds unless Sofia cleaned up its act. The country due to receive 6.67 billion euro under seven EU operational programmes by 2013.

Barroso's visit last week, during which he said Brussels was tiring of delivering the same message on the necessity to fight corruption, was seen as a gesture of support for Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev in the current row around Interior Minister Roumen Petkov, who admitted that he has met with businessmen under police investigation.