The interior minister assumed responsibility for the inefficient communication between his directorate and EU institutions in the wake of Brussels critical report over lack of reforms to fight corruption and crime.

"It is my fault that the Interior Ministry's dialogue with the European Commission has not been active enough", Petkov admitted on Monday in the Black Sea city of Varna.

He stressed that a more regular communication between the two institutions needed to be established in order to allow a sufficient volume of information to be conveyed from Bulgaria's interior ministry to EU institutions.

The interim report of the European Commission criticizes Sofia for the lack of convincing results in the fight against corruption and organized crime. Minister Petkov, however, described it as "positive rather than negative", adding that part of the materials that his ministry provided had not been reflected included in this latest report.

"The most important thing for the Ministry of Interior is to convince Bulgarian society that the processes in the country are irreversible and that the system works", Petkov underscored, citing as evidence the sentences of the Burgas drug dealing group led by Dimitar Zhelyazkov, aka Ochite, the arrests of high-ranking state officials and charges against high-level magistrates.

Minister Petkov stressed that these results would allow Bulgaria to demonstrate in the half-year report that the interior ministry did not act occasionally but that the system worked as a whole.

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