Once Bulgaria joined the EU the procedures for acquiring Bulgarian citizenship would be changed, Vice President Angel Marin said.

Some changes were needed to guarantee that Bulgaria would not turn into a mass EU entry point lacking careful inspection of all applications, Marin said.

Marin said that several years ago nearly 6000 citizenships were granted and at the moment around 12 000 people mainly from Macedonia, Moldova and Ukraine got such.

The procedure was slow, Marin said, though steps had been undertaken to speed it up. The reason for that was the lack of administrative capacity, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

Several attempts for the organisation of illegal citizenship channels were made in neighbouring countries, Marin said. Yet, major violations had not been registered and most procedures were followed, Marin said.