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Since joining the European Union Bulgaria has remained reform-weary, riddled with crime and corruption and wholly unready for membership, a German diplomat argues.
"True, Germany is not all roses either, but breaches of law are an exception, rather than the rule and when they occur, they are dealt with properly," Klaus Shramayer, a German political scientist, who previously served as Germany's former deputy ambassador to Sofia, told Deutsche Welle.
The European Commission keeps the pressure up on Bulgaria after accession, but Prime Minister Boyko Borisov does not seem to give a damn about Brussels, according to the former German diplomat.
"Borisov did not bother to admit that he stopped investigating a controversial businessman, Mihail Mihov, owner of a beer factory, because of commitments not to harass him. He did not bother to ignore repeated demands from Brussels for direct election of the Supreme Judicial Council members. The same holds true for this staff policy."
Klaus Shramayer also criticized the European Union for not forcing Bulgaria to grapple with the legacy of the past and open fully the files of the Secret Service, which in his words, would have disabled the hubs of the former communist regime.
Bulgaria's big achievement - being given the green light to join the EU in January 2007, together with its neighbor Romania – was clouded by the fact that Brussels and just about everybody else deemed it the least prepared country ever to join, with much to do in reforming the judiciary, public administration and other key areas, notably air safety.
Klaus Shramayer argues however that five years later and despite Bulgaria's half-hearted attempts to address the most acute issues, there has not been much improvement.
"Bulgaria's EU accession was premature because the country in no way met the Copenhagen criteria. It does not even today."
Klaus Shramayer ended the interview on a positive note, saying the recent protest against the law on forests show Bulgarians are no longer willing to take it any more.
Earlier this month Jan-Werner Mueller, who teaches politics at Princeton University, wrote in the Guardian that Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria seem to be sliding backwards from liberal democracy and towards what many observers now call "Putinisation".
According to the author it is an urgent challenge for the European commission, which appeared to assume that once inside the club of European liberal democracies, nobody could imagine anything better.
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