Bulgaria's Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev presented Wednesday his new advisory board aiming to improve Bulgaria's development as an EU member, which is chaired by the former French PM Dominique de Villepin.

The purpose of the advisory board is consult the Bulgarian government in its efforts to overcome the issues that the country is facing in the context of its development as an EU member.

Apart from de Villepin, who was France's PM in 2005-2007, the board also includes Josep PiquГ© i Camps (Spain's foreign Minister in 2000-2002), and Antonio Vitorino, (former Portuguese EU Commissioner for justice and home affairs and former Defense Minister of Portugal).

The PM Stanishev explained that the board was going to work independently, and its creation was motivated by Bulgaria's need to learn from the best EU practices in order to tackle its issues in the absorption of EU funds, the application of the Lisbon Strategy, the modernization of the judicial system, the fight against corruption, and meeting the criteria for joining the Schenghen Agreement.

The advisory board will have a mandate of six months, at the end of which it will prepare a report on the reforms that Bulgaria needs to carry out. The payment that the board members will receive for their services has not been settled yet.

De Villepin explained he had accepted the invitation of Bulgaria's socialist PM to head the board even though he belonged to a right-wing political tradition.

"This shows that we are above politics and political considerations, and that our mandate is to protect Bulgaria's public interest", the former French Prime Minister stated.

He also said the board had no intention to impose any decisions on the Bulgarian government. However, it was going to work actively to improve the dialogue with the EU.

De Villepin pointed to the administrative capacity, the business reforms, the integration of small and medium sized enterprises, the investment in human capital, and the improvement of justice and interior affairs as the crucial areas where Bulgaria could benefit from EU's best practices.

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