EU-Report Accession Bulgaria

Introduction

In its 1997 Opinion on Bulgaria's application for EU membership, the Commission concluded:

``Bulgaria has set up democratic institutions and their stability now seems secure. They must be reinforced by practices more in keeping with the rule of law at all levels of the State apparatus. Free and fair elections produced changeovers of government in 1994 and 1997.

Shortcomings remain on respect for fundamental rights but the new government elected in April 1997 has announced a series of reforms in the right direction. Considerable efforts must be made to combat corruption, improve administration of justice and provide fuller protection for individual freedoms, particularly as cases of abuse of power on the part of the police and the secret services are still all too frequent.

Although the Turkish minority seems well integrated, this is not the case with the Romany (tzigane) population.

The improvements since the new government came to power suggest that Bulgaria is on the way to meeting the political conditions set by the European Council in Copenhagen''.

In its 2001 Regular Report, the Commission found that:

``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 ill-treatment, which 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''.

The section below provides an assessment of developments in Bulgaria, seen from the perspective of the Copenhagen political criteria, including the overall functioning of the country's executive and its judicial system. Such developments are in many ways closely linked to developments regarding Bulgaria's ability to implement the acquis, in particular in the domain of justice and home affairs. Specific information on the development of Bulgaria's ability to implement the acquis in the field of justice and home affairs can be found in the relevant section (Chapter 24 -- Co-operation in the field of justice and home affairs) of part B.3.1. of this Report.

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