The Vice President of the European Commission GГјnter Verheugen, who is also the Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, praised Bulgaria for its impressive economic progress during his visit to Sofia on Wednesday.

However, Verheugen also reminded that the criticism against Bulgaria in the recent monitoring reports of the EC, showed the same weaknesses the country had ten years ago - feeble administration, corruption, and need to reform the judicial system.

The EC Vice President also pointed out the EC reports did not rank Bulgaria within the EU, and that if the Commission had applied the same strict monitoring criteria to other member states, it might have discovered grave problems elsewhere as well.

Veheugen, who was European Commissioner for Enlargement in 1999-2004, did say, however, he was worried by the worsening image of the country.

"Despite the EU sanctions I don't see any euroscepticism in the country with the exception of part of the vociferous opposition", the EC Vice President said apparently meaning the extreme right Ataka party.

Verheugen had meetings with Bulgaria's PM Sergey Stanishev, the Deputy PM on EU funds absorption Meglena Plugchieva, the President Georgi Parvanov, the Minister of Energy and Economy Petar Dimitrov, and the Minister of Finance Plamen Oresharski.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!