(SOFIA) - Bulgaria on Friday pledged to speed up investigations into the misuse of EU subsidies and aid after Brussels renewed calls on its new Balkans member to boost its fight against corruption.

Following talks with the director of Europe's anti-fraud agency (OLAF) Franz-Hermann Bruner, Bulgaria's chief prosecutor Boris Velchev admitted "the need to speed up work on the cases followed by OLAF and improve communication."

Bruner and a team of OLAF experts arrived on a two-day visit to Sofia Thursday and renewed calls for EU's Balkan newcomer to clamp down on corruption and fraud with EU subsidies.

Velchev said Friday that he and Bruner had reviewed progress on "concrete cases of mismanagement of EU funds" but did not elaborate.

Bulgarian media said the European Commission is closely monitoring a handful of graft cases, including an investigation with OLAF on the siphoning off of 7.5 million euros of farm aid given before Bulgaria joined the EU last year.

The case has dragged on for months. A recent OLAF report hinted that high-ranking officials might be hindering the trial. One of the alleged masterminds of the fraud financed the election campaign of the current Bulgarian president.

In its latest progress monitoring report on Bulgaria, the European Commission strongly condemned Sofia's failure to tackle corruption and its bad management of EU funds.

The EU executive arm also froze more than 800 million euros (1.18 billion dollars) in farm, road and regional development aid money due to fraud and conflict of interest concerns.

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