Bulgaria 'has made progress towards EU accession in 2007'

European Justice Commisioner Franco Frattini praised Monday in Sofia "concrete progress" made by Bulgaria towards joining the European Union on January 1, 2007 but said more effort was needed fully to implement changes.

"I am a bit more optimistic after my last visit here. I see concrete progress... Bulgaria is on the right track. Now the key word is implementation," Frattini told a press conference after meeting Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev.

Frattini also praised "important successes" in dismantling organised crime groups, the abolition of bank secrecy, improving capacities to protect external borders, fighting corruption in public administration and eradicating petty corruption.

In its last monitoring report on Bulgaria's preparedness to join the 25-member bloc along with Romania, the European Commission demanded "clear evidence of results in investigating and prosecuting organised crime networks...(and in) the fight against fraud and corruption".

The two neighbouring Balkan states are scheduled to join the EU in 2007 but are still awaiting September 26 and the European Commission's final ruling on whether accession will go ahead on time or be postponed with another year.

"Nobody in Bulgaria should and can be above the law - neither politicians, nor magistrates, nor security authorities," Frattini said Monday, supporting "common consensus towards approving constitutional changes to fully guarantee the independence of the judiciary".

Bulgaria amended its constitution in March in a bid to strengthen the functioning of its often criticized judiciary but European experts saw in the changes adopted a threat to the judiciary's independence by subjecting the Supreme Court and the chief prosecutor to parliament control.

Removing "any ambiguity regarding the judiciary's independence" was another major issue pointed out in the Commission's report in May.