Everything is clear in hindsight, as the old adage goes. But as a former rapporteur for Bulgaria in the European Parliament, surely the current situation should come as no surprise for Geoffrey Van Orden?

Is he honestly trying to tell us that the huge scandal that is now playing itself out at the highest level of Bulgarian politics is a surprise to him?

Where the people involved not the same ones he dealt with day in, day out when he was the MEP most acquainted with the state of affairs in the country.

Now, I understand the premise of innocence until proven guilty. But did the systematic delays and failures to implement the Commission's and Parliament's recommendations on justice reforms not ring any alarm bells?

Van Orden now says the European executive will help the investigation, but will also shirk any responsibility.

That does make sense because it would be setting a dangerous precedent for more than one of the other member states and the Commission is understandably loath to do so, because of the inevitable backlash.

But he fails to see one thing. The biggest single reason for Bulgarians wanting to join the EU was the hope that it would help clean up the mess that 17 years of transition created.

The EU is no saviour, but taking a more resolute stance would be a good thing - if nothing else, it would signal that the European institutions will not close their eyes on the patently obvious wrongs in member states.

Otherwise, why did they bother letting Bulgaria in?

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