The biggest portion of Bulgarians perceive corruption, shortcomings in the judicial system and organized crime as very important issues that need to be resolved. Additionally, 78% of people believe that the EU should continue monitoring the country in those areas.

These are the results from a survey conducted by the European Commission on the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and its effectiveness in Bulgaria.

The EU implements the mechanism as a safety measure used when newly acceding states have not shown the necessary improvement in the areas of freedom, security, justice and internal market policy.

The research also showed that a decreased number of people believe the EU accession had a positive impact on the judicial system - 61%, as compared to 71% of respondents in 2012.

Respondents in Bulgaria however were most confident that the situation regarding shortcomings in their country’s judicial system would improve (42%). Nearly four out of ten respondents (39%) thought that the situation regarding organised crime in Bulgaria would improve.

Since the onset of Bulgaria and Romania's EU membership, the CVM has been applied to both countries to assess progress in fighting corruption, judicial reform and, in the case of Bulgaria, fighting organized crime.

The government in Sofia has been warning in the last few months that Bulgaria risks being separated from Romania in monitoring since it has not shown enough progress in any of the abovementioned areas, unlike its northern neighbor which has performed better and has significantly enforced the independence of its judiciary.

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