The European Commission monitoring of the manner in which Bulgaria managed implementing reforms should be seen as stimulus for movement in the right direction, EC president Jose Manuel Barroso said.

Barroso and enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn visited Bulgaria a day after the presentation of the September 26 monitoring report on Bulgaria's readiness to become EU member.

The report confirmed January 1 2007 as the country's accession date but also recommended strict monitoring of the implementation of reforms in the remaining critical areas. The country still had to deal with corruption and organised crime and had to complete the reform of its judiciary.

Barroso said that the success should not put an end to reforms and the confirmation should be seen as the beginning rather than as the end of a process.

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said that Bulgaria previously faced an entry delay and had to speed up reforms. Bulgaria was going to continue meeting accession criteria at the same pace to counter the expectation of skeptics, Stanishev said.

The Bulgarian society was aware that further steps had to be taken to make Bulgaria full-fledged EU member state and officials in the country were aware of the fact, said Barroso. The commitment Stanishev expressed to continue reforms was the type of confirmation EC needed from Bulgaria, said Barroso.