The body, which is in charge of the self-administration and organisation of Bulgaria's judiciary, has shrugged off Brussels criticism over the lack of reforms to fight corruption and crime.

The Supreme Judicial Council, also known as the judiciary government, commented the interim report of the European Commission on Thursday, poorly hiding its irritation, yet admitting to weak points in the system.

"I would comment the report with dignity. We should not act as students, who are being slapped," the chair of the Supreme Cassation Court Lazar Gruev fumed.

"The report says that 20 final convictions for high level corruption for a period of four months, indicate sluggish prosecutors. Well, I would like to ask what exactly we are supposed to speed up?, he said, adding that the court is "no ambulance".

The meeting heard numerous calls for drawing up a new Penal Code, since the current one came under intense fire in the Brussels report.

Justice Minister Miglena Tacheva said she will propose to the government to postpone the enforcement of the Civil Penal Code due to shortage of qualified judges to apply it.

Senior prosecutor Boris Velchev admitted that prosecutors make blunders even in investigations that have huge public impact, but dismissed Brussels criticisms over lack of progress in corruption combat.

"Let's not be masochistic. Let's admit that many good things happened, at least in recognition of the efforts of those magistrates who do their job properly," European Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova commented.

The European Commission interim report on the progress Bulgaria made in implementing justice reforms concluded that the country has not demonstrated convincing results in key areas such as the fight against high-level corruption and organized crime.

"The commission's analysis of a sample of high-profile cases [of organised crime] registered shows that only one case has been finalised since 2000 and half of the cases are still at the investigation stage," according to the Bulgarian document.

The European Commission also recommended that Sofia should strengthen "actions to fight corruption within local government and vulnerable sectors such as healthcare and education".

According to the report, the formal restrictions of the Bulgarian Penal Procedures Code in the pre-trial phase impede swift court procedures and are reported to lead to frequent referrals from the court back to the prosecution.

Cases of alleged high-level corruption and organized crime have continued to be subject to frequent referrals and long delays on procedural grounds. The Bulgarian Penal Code does not differentiate sufficiently between different degrees of crime and appears structurally outdated.

The report marks Bulgaria's success in adopting Constitutional amendments, which removed any ambiguity regarding the independence and accountability of the judicial system

It is pointed out that allegations of corruption during the last local elections have resulted in 13 pre-trial proceedings following amendments to the Penal Code in October 2007 which criminalized vote-buying.

The EU report measured progress on six so-called benchmarks which the union set out for Bulgaria to achieve to meet EU standards.

The report is mid-term one and no conclusions of the reform process in the countries are going to be delivered.

A decision on the eventual triggering of a so-called "safeguard clause" will be contained in the final report due in June 2008.

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