The ruling coalition was created with the only aim of ensuring Bulgaria’s on-time EU accession on January 1 2007. The European Commission report, however, shows that almost nothing has changed since the 2005 report, Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) leader Petar Stoyanov said.

Six areas of high concern remain in the monitoring report, Stoyanov said.

President Georgi Purvanov needed to explain why Bulgaria’s reform progress has slowed down, though the country initially was ahead of Romania, Stoyanov said.

Recently EU officials praised Romanian reforms and called for more measures against corruption and organised crime in Bulgaria, Focus news agency reported.

Purvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev had to re-evaluate the work of all ministers, Stoyanov said. Resignations should be requested for the areas, where EU criticism persists, said he.

The introduction of safeguard clauses would have negative effects on the Bulgarian society, the UDF leader said.

A no-confidence vote at the moment would only make the situation more difficult, said Stoyanov. The Cabinet needed to speed up its work and to implement all reforms that were still missing, said he.