New Europe

April 11, 2010

The government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is facing increasing difficulties because the hopes of the Bulgarian people are fading away as the economic crisis is dragging the country into deep recession.

Borishov enjoys the full support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel but since such support is not associated with cash, Bulgaria is getting in deep difficulties. The Bulgarian Premier, in order to keep control of the situation, is blaming his opponents and to this effect several people are being arrested in Sofia in an operation that the opposition claims to be intimidation. Indeed, in most cases accusations do not seem to be as sound and solid as they could be, and just in one case, the arrest of a former minister on corruption accusations, the judges refused to give a trial because there was no evidence of crime whatsoever. The information is wide-spread in Brussels, especially in the quarters that strongly supported Borisov’s election.

Another issue of concern is the formation of the cabinet of the Bulgarian Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva. She was “kindly invited” by the Commission services to appoint as Head of Cabinet Sabine Wey, a Commission official who worked close with Secretary General of the Commission, Catherine Day. Wey herself has appointed all members of Georgieva’s Cabinet, consulting only with the Commission services (call me Catherine) and this explains why none of the officials recommended by Sofia or other quarters, were included.

Having kept Sofia away from the Cabinet of the Commissioner, Bulgaria can now count only on political interventions at high level. This, however, may prove not that easy since reservations are being expressed by the same people that supported Borisov and contributed substantially to his election.

In this context it will not be surprising if the Bulgarian dossiers with OLAF, the Anti-Fraud service of the European Union which with various, not always orthodox, practices were closed, are to be re-opened.

The Bulgarian dossiers were initially handled by Ruggero Perugini, a very efficient and impeccable OLAF investigator who in his records has, among others, been a substantial help to FBI in dismembering an important branch of Mafia in the United States. The work of Perugini, resulted in freezing payments of over half a billion Euro to Bulgaria three years ago. However, after the Commission, decided to de-freeze Bulgarian payments Perugini was kindly asked to retire. So he did and in the goodbye drink on his didmissal from the service, addressing his colleagues with a rather ironic tone said he was happy his dossiers were in …. “good hands.”

When, however, the Head of A3 Unit Thierry Cretin was promoted to Director, and Unit A3 was temporarily assigned to Marco Pecoraro, the former right hand of the legendary OLAF investigator Alberto Perduca. When Pecoraro assumed duties as interim head of A3, in a rather strange move, all Bulgarian dossiers were passed to Elisabeth Sperber, the then Head of Unit for Agriculture in OLAF. In the meanwhile, the post of the Head of A3 Unit was opened in internal competition and, as anticipated by many, the position was given to Col. Alessandro Butice, former port-parole of OLAF. With the appointment of Butice, all Bulgarian dossiers returned to A3.

All this means that the opening, closing, re-opening, re-closing and so forth of the Bulgarian dossiers, is not an issue of investigation but a political tool in the hands of the services. One last thing; it may be coincidental but all the Bulgarian dossiers under investigation have two common elements. They are all full of irregularities and in all such dossiers, in one way or another, German firms are involved.

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