Bulgaria Socialist Party (BSP) leader Sergey Stanishev has claimed that the previous government should be given credit by the European Commission and by the present leadership.

"The July [2009] report of the Commission was much more positive than the present," he stated on Tuesday.

Stanishev claimed that many of the positive findings of the current interim report on Bulgaria were due to initiatives undertaken by the previous, socialist government.

According to him, reform of the Bulgarian judicial system was vital, but only after reaching a broad political consensus.

"A war with the judiciary is not needed - as is being imposed by the [present, GERB] Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov," he stated, adding: "If they are looking for a simple excuse in the style, "We get them - they let them go", this will not help Bulgaria," he concluded, referring to a well-known phrase of PM Boyko Borisov.

The latest interim report of the European Commission on the progress of Bulgaria, published earlier on Tuesday, had noted that positive efforts were being made, but that there was an urgent need to continue reform of the judiciary.

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