Bulgaria will welcome within a month a delegation of the European Aviation Safety Agency, whose report is hoped to clear the way for lifting the safeguard clause against the Balkan country aviation.

"The European Commission will scrap the safeguard clause against Bulgaria's aviation because we will take every care to meet the European safety requirements," Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev said in Brussels.

Minister Mutafchiev conferred on Friday with the European Commission Vice President and Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, who praised Bulgaria's commitment to rectify the flaws in the system.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) renewed its inspections in Bulgaria at the end of November and its report will have the final say on whether to lift the restrictions on Bulgaria's airlines, which the European Union introduced shortly before the country's accession on January 1, 2007 over "grave deficiencies" in safety procedures.

The safeguard clause excluded local air carriers from the benefit of being considered a "Community carrier" and they continued to operate as "third country operators" to and from member states in accordance with existing bilateral agreements. Five local cargo airlines were stripped of licence.

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