French ambassador to Bulgaria Xavier Lapeyere de Cabanes, said there were no signs that the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) applied to Bulgaria and Romania might come to an end.

On the contrary, the CVM might be reinforced, announced the French diplomat at a conference dedicated to the European future of the Balkans, held in Sofia on Wednesday.

De Cabanes explained that the rule of law was not-well established in Bulgaria and Romania at the time of their accession to the EU in 2007, which necessitated the application of the mechanism.

In his words, the mechanism, which is better known as monitoring, had as its aim transforming the political elites of the two countries and making them respect EU law.

However success has not been achieved, which explains the need of the continued supervision by the European Commission.

Nevertheless, the French smbassador pointed out one considerable achievement of Bulgaria, namely its success in preventing any conflicts on its territory in the last 20 years and overcoming the nationalist provocations of some political powers in the country.

De Cabanes also said that between the countries of the Balkan peninsula there are enormous differences in terms of government, history and culture, which make it difficult to view them as one political whole.

"Each generalisation on the Balkans leads to a simplification, which is inaccurate and does not present the political realities of the region," he said.

The French diplomat added that each country should be assessed by Brussels according to its own achievements.

In his words, the EU has not yet specified whether it accepts as necessity that all countries of the Balkan peninsula should become members of the EU.

De Cabanes gave as an example the position of France, which focuses on receiving guarantees that an eventual enlargement to the Balkans will happen according to a strictly defined order, ensuring that each of the future members will be legally prepared and will have the potential for effective and equal membership.

Moments in EU's history have proven that the signing of treaties between the EU and other countries did not gurantee in itself that the agreements will be respected if the countries did not share the same values and goals.

De Cabanes expressed his opinion that EU membership for the small countries of the Balkans would bring benefits to them, as they will not risk losing right to express their opinion on issues concerning Europe's future.

"The clumsy process of enlargement, the long negotiations, and insecurity regarding their eventual membership, can be factors that might discourage the national governments of candidate states and leave the door open to the competitors of united Europe," warned the French ambassador.

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