Bulgaria

In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that Bulgaria fulfilled the political criteria. Since that time, Bulgaria has made considerable progress in further consolidating and deepening the stability of its institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities. Over the past year, further efforts have been made in this direction. Bulgaria continues to fulfil the Copenhagen political criteria.

Since last year, further progress has been made in public administration reform. Many employees have civil servant status and there is now a Code of Ethics for Civil Servants. The Law on Access to Public Information is a positive step, but needs further clarification to ensure effective implementation. Further steps are needed to ensure an efficient, transparent and accountable public administration.

The recent adoption by the government of two strategies, one on judicial reform and the other on combating corruption, is a significant development. The challenge now is to implement these. The judicial system remains weak and there is as yet no reason to change the assessment made last year that further efforts are needed for it to become strong, independent, effective and professional and able to guarantee full respect for the rule of law as well as effective participation in the internal market. Corruption has continued to give serious cause for concern. Enforcing the legal framework effectively presents a challenge and greater focus is needed on prevention of corruption.

Some progress has been made on human rights training of police and on combating trafficking of human beings. However, there is a need to address police behaviour, notably as regards reported cases of ill­treatment. continues to give cause for serious concern.

A child protection agency and a national advisory council for child protection have been set up. Further steps need to be taken to make the Child Protection Agency operational. On child welfare, there is not yet a significant change in the number of children in institutions. Poor conditions in some homes for children with mental disabilities are cause for concern.

Roma continue to suffer from widespread social discrimination. Political commitment from the government to remedy their problems has still not been matched by concrete action. One more positive development is that some NGOs have pursued projects on desegregation of Roma schools.

Very little further progress has been made to meet the Accession Partnership priority to start implementation of the Roma Framework Programme, and to strengthen the National Council on Ethnic and Demographic Issues.

Concerning other related Accession Partnership priorities, Bulgaria has made further progress to implement the Civil Service Law. However, the priority of strengthening the judiciary has not yet been met.

Bulgaria is close to being a functioning market economy. It should be able to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union in the medium term, provided it continues implementing reform and intensifies the reform effort to remove persistent difficulties.

The Bulgarian macroeconomy is going into its fourth year of stable conditions, having established a satisfactory track record of macroeconomic performance. Good progress has been made in privatisation, especially as regards banks, and with structural reform, setting the microeconomic basis for sustained growth.

However, inflation has risen considerably in 2000. Investment remains insufficient. Financial intermediation continues to be low and inefficient. Specific deficiencies remaining in the land market affect the performance of this market and of other economic sectors. The authorities should give priority to strengthening the judiciary and the enforcement of the regulatory framework. Administrative obstacles to private sector development, affecting enterprise creation, their development and their closing down, including bankruptcy procedures, must be eliminated. A sustained implementation of these reform measures and higher levels of private and public investment are key requirements for sustainable growth, and building up competitiveness.

Bulgaria has continued a good pace of alignment of legislation with the acquis but still needs to pay more attention to how this will be implemented and enforced. Progress on public administration reform has continued and is a positive sign. This needs to be sustained to ensure public administration is prepared for its role at EU accession. However, little has been done to prepare the judicial system, which needs to be modernised and strengthened, in particular to ensure effective enforcement of the acquis.

Regarding the internal market, Bulgaria has made further progress in most areas. In free movement of goods progress continued with membership of European Accreditation as a major achievement. Reinforcement of administrative infrastructure for standardisation and certification, and of market surveillance systems, is still necessary. On financial services, Bulgaria has developed sound banking supervision practices. Company law has been further aligned and the legal framework for protecting intellectual and industrial property rights improved, but further steps are needed to ensure this is enforced. On state aids, Bulgaria is at last starting to develop and implement a framework for state aids but this is not yet compatible with the acquis. Bulgaria still lacks a legal framework on data protection compatible with the acquis.

In agriculture, Bulgaria has continued generally good progress on approximation of legislation but implementing the acquis poses a significant challenge. Veterinary and phytosanitary inspection arrangements need further upgrading. The partial accreditation of SAPARD is a noteworthy success. Progress on fisheries has accelerated compared to previous years.

Whilst progress has been made to amend labour law towards alignment with the acquis, progress on equal treatment legislation remains slow. Whilst administrative capacity of the general labour inspectorate has been reinforced, the capacity to implement the acquis on occupational health and safety will need to be increased.

Concerning regional policy, Bulgaria has made little further progress and much more attention needs to be paid to preparation for implementing structural policies. Bulgaria has continued its positive efforts on transposition of the EC environmental acquis but implementation and the cost of alignment remain a challenge.

The pace of progress on transport has been pursued both on adoption and creation of implementing structures. There has also been an increase in investments. The restructuring of the energy sector has progressed at a very slow pace throughout 2001 following delays in the planned revision of the legislative framework. These delays have hindered efficiency improvement and preparation for privatisation. As regards nuclear energy, Bulgaria must respect the de­commissioning commitments of the Memorandum of Understanding and ensure a high level of nuclear safety.

In justice and home affairs, further progress has been made in most areas in terms of legislation but progress on strengthening administrative capacity was not as strong as required. Some progress has been made on control of external borders; however, there is scope for further improvement, in particular in inter­agency co­operation.

In external policies, Bulgaria's performance remains strong, continuing to make a substantial contribution to regional stability and following the path of trade liberalisation with the EC and its preferential partners.

For customs and taxation, Bulgaria will need to develop IT systems that allow for exchange of data with the EC.

Further progress has been made to strengthen financial control and on improving public expenditure management and control. Efforts should be pursued.

Whilst some progress can be noted on establishment of the institutions necessary to implement the acquis and on public administration reform, the capacity of the Bulgarian administration remains limited. Further sustained progress and allocation of the necessary resources will be necessary to meet the challenges ahead. Further efforts are also required in establishing the necessary administrative capacity to ensure the sound, efficient and controllable management of EC funds.

Whilst work on public administration is progressing, the slow pace of preparation of the judicial system to enforce the acquis is worrying. Progress on judicial reform needs to be substantially accelerated.

Bulgaria has fulfilled partially and made progress since last year on all of the short­term Accession Partnership priorities relating to the acquis. Concerning administrative capacity, Bulgaria has moved forward on priorities, with the exception of that of strengthening the judiciary, where little progress has been made. The implementation of the recently adopted strategy for judicial reform should make a difference. Bulgaria has started to address the majority of medium­term Accession Partnership priorities.

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