Bulgaria's Corruption Ranking Hits a New Low in 2024
Bulgaria continues to struggle with high levels of corruption
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Bulgaria on Tuesday inaugurated a special tribunal that should enhance its so far faltering attempts to fight organized crime and corruption.
The special court is intended to speed up the current slow pace of of defendants in organized crime and corruption trials.
The launch, however, was itself delayed. The court was originally planned for May 2011.
Bulgaria's inefficient and corrupt justice system was named as one of the country's key problems both before and after its accession to the European Union in 2007.
In spite of apparent corruption even at top levels of the administration and ties between politics and criminals, very few guilty verdicts have been handed down in the two decades since the fall of communism.
The EU has blocked hundreds of millions of euros in assistance to Bulgaria owing to blatant embezzlement of funds and has placed the country under unprecedented surveillance.
*The title has been changed by the Editorial Staff of Novinite.com
Brazen Bulgarian gangs "terrorise the elderly and rob them over their life savings with increasingly aggressive phone scams nettling millions of euros," according to an AFP story.
The prospect of US President Donald Trump's moving closer to Russia has scrambled the strategy of "balancing East and West" used for decades by countries like Bulgaria, the New York Times says.
Bulgarians have benefited a lot from their EU membership, with incomes rising and Brussels overseeing politicians, according to a New York Times piece.
German businesses prefer to trade with Bulgaria rather than invest into the country, an article on DW Bulgaria's website argues.
The truth about Bulgaria and Moldova's presidential elections is "more complicated" and should not be reduced to pro-Russian candidates winning, the Economist says.
President-elect Rumen Radev "struck a chord with voters by attacking the status quo and stressing issues like national security and migration," AFP agency writes after the presidential vote on Sunday.
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