"The message of the European Commission is encouraging and inspires us to double our efforts," Bulgaria's prime minister said, commenting on Tuesday's monitoring report by the EC.

Sergey Stanishev found conclusions in the document to match Bulgaria's own assessment.

"It proved that Bulgaria has done a load of hard work," his upbeat address delivered to the media said.

Stanishev was especially pleased that the EC did not suggest any safeguard clauses.

EC urged Bulgaria to crack down on organized crime and high-level corruption, and to speed up the reform of its judiciary.

The final decision on the accession date was postponed for October.

Bulgaria's entire administrative capacity will engage in completing the necessary reforms, the Premier said Tuesday.

"Bulgaria - this is Europe!" were the final words in Stanishev's message.

Sofia and Bucharest have been moving shoulder-to-shoulder in their accession efforts, although in recent months Bulgaria seemed to lag behind its northern neighbor.

Despite fears in Sofia, the EC did not suggest to separate its bid to join the bloc from that of Bucharest.

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