Bulgaria is doing at least as well as Romania in the fields of justice and home affairs but it has unfairly been portrayed in a more negative light.

This statement was made Tuesday by Andreas Geiger, an associate at the Brussels law firm Alber & Geiger, which was hired by the Bulgarian government in October in order to consult it over its post-accession troubles.

In an interview for EurActiv, Geiger argues there had been miscommunication between the European Commission and the Bulgarian authorities.

The lawyer points out Bulgaria had repeatedly been judged in a stricter way than its northern neighbor even though the situation of the two countries was identical.

Geiger did mention the fact that Bulgaria had a left-centrist government, whereas Romania had a conservative rightist government but did not argue explicitly that the Commission's judgment was politicized because of this fact.

The Brussels lawyer stated that the EU probably needed a bogeyman to send the message the Union's further enlargement had to be slowed down.

However, he did raise the question of why only Bulgaria should be used as a negative example, and added that the different evaluation of a comparable situation in Romania was unjustified.

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