Brussels urges Bulgaria to get tough on EU fraud
(SOFIA) - The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) urged Bulgaria on Thursday to crack down on fraud cases involving EU money and hand down tougher sentences on offenders.
"Much has been done but it is also a pity that much money already went in the wrong hands," OLAF chief Franz-Hermann Bruener told a press conference after talks with Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva, who oversees the management of EU funds.
At a meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev earlier Thursday, Bruener said the country must convict those responsible for mismanagement of European Union funds, but refrained from singling out any suspects.
"It is important that trials end with convictions ... The cases are well-known and I would not like to leave the impression that we are pressuring the judiciary by naming them," he said.
Stanishev meanwhile vowed that his centre-left government would not ease up its efforts for more transparency and to prevent mismanagement of EU money.
Bruener was in Sofia for a one-day visit, his second trip here in four months, to discuss with the Bulgarian government its efforts to root out the misuse of money from EU's pre-accession aid programmes Sapard, ISPA and Phare.
In July, the EU Commission in Brussels froze some 825 million euros (1.03 billion dollars) in farm, road and regional development subsidies amid concerns of possible fraud and conflicts of interest.
Brussels also threatened more sanctions if Bulgaria did not take effective preventative measures.
Failure to come up to scratch could jeopardise Bulgaria's bid to receive another 11 billion euros in cohesion and structural funds by 2013, the EU executive said.
"I cannot say if the money would be unfrozen. It is up to Brussels to decide whether Bulgaria's efforts are enough or not," Bruener said Thursday.
Sofia responded to Brussels' criticism in October by setting up a special unit of prosecutors to investigate mismanagement of EU money. It also passed Bulgaria's first conflict-of-interest law.
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