Bulgaria EU Affairs Minister: Main Thing to Do Is Reform

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | April 12, 2008, Saturday // 00:00
Bulgaria: Bulgaria EU Affairs Minister: Main Thing to Do Is Reform Bulgaria's EU Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova said the EC had not lost patience with the country but called for the acceleration of its reforms. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)

The Bulgarian European Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova said Saturday that the main thing Bulgaria must do was to reform the Interior Ministry.

In an interview for the Bulgarian private Darik Radio, Grancharova denied there had been any hints by EU institutions that the Interior Minister Rumen Petkov had to be dismissed.

She also stated she did not believe the doomsday scenario about the European Commission Report on Bulgaria to come out in July even though the EU would follow strictly all developments and reform attempts in Bulgaria's justice and interior sectors.

"The commentaries about what is happening in Bulgaria are not compliments but are not insults as well. We need to understand them correctly, and to figure out how to move the reform quickly forward", Grancharova said.

The European Affairs Minister was explicit that the EU had not lost its patience towards Bulgaria, but that it was just calling for acceleration of the reform. In her words, Bulgaria's EU partners trusted the Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev 100% about his ability to complete the job.

Grancharova pointed to Ireland as an example, reminding that when it joined the European Community in 1973, it was the poorest state. She said the country had made great progress after the murder of an investigative journalist, Veronika Guarin, in the 1990s, and the radical anticrime measures on part of the Irish Parliament that followed immediately.

"This shows that every critical situation requires a proper approach," Grancharova stated.

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