Bulgaria is well prepared to meet the country's scheduled January 2007 EU accession date, the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee says in its recent report on Bulgaria's progress toward EU accession, as cited by EurActive.com.

Bulgaria has closed 26 out of the 31 negotiation chapters and is making "great strides" in its economic reform programme, the committee report noted.

While Bulgaria already fulfils the political criteria laid down during the 2002 Copenhagen Summit, Sofia should strive to improve further the country's judiciary and public administration systems, and should keep the fight against corruption and organised crime high on its agenda, the report said.

The Committee welcomed Bulgaria's scheduled mid-2004 entry in NATO, and said it considered the country a "major pillar of stability" in South Eastern Europe.

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