“How many murders of Bulgarian politicians would it take to get the European Commission to publish a truly critical report,” The Times said in its report on the latest EC analysis of reform progress in Bulgaria and Romania.

The report that EC presented on June 27 refrained from sanctioning the two EU newcomers for the slow fight against corruption and organised crime. Observers said the report was much less critical than expected.

According to The Times, the EC adopted deliberately mild tone, though insignificant progress has been made.

“The Commission had made a political decision to strike a balance between citing problems and encouraging the pair,” Justice commissioner Franco Frattini said as quoted by The Times.

Bulgaria still experiences significant problems with crime. Because of these problems the EC report was surprising in its lack of serious criticism.

As The Times puts it “Bulgaria is the shocker: more than 155 contract killings in public since 2000…To be rich, to be in politics, to be president of the Lokomotiv Plovdiv football club –all these have been repeatedly shown to be lethal.”