Bulgaria will act swiftly on crime and judicial reform: PM

(SOFIA) - Bulgaria will act swiftly on new recommendations by the EU on judicial reform and the fight against crime, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov promised Tuesday.

Responding to what he saw as the European Commission's "best report" on Bulgaria since the country joined the EU in 2007, Borisov said: "We will start acting on this report as of tomorrow."

The premier was talking to Bulgarian national radio from a two-day working visit to Vienna.

In its latest annual report on Bulgaria's progress in judicial reform and combatting crime, the EU Commission noted "a strong reform momentum" in Sofia's efforts to improve its slow and inefficient judiciary and put well-known criminals behind bars.

"The new strategy for judicial reform demonstrates the existence of a strong political will in Bulgaria to achieve a deep and lasting reform of the judiciary," the report stated.

But it also made a number of recommendations to turn this political will into results on the ground and lead to more sentences.

The Commission also noted the need to strengthen protection against conflict of interest and prevent misuse of EU aid funds, which has already prompted Brussels to strip Bulgaria of some of its money.

Borisov said his government would draw up a "plan with concrete deadlines for addressing each one of the shortcomings in the report."

However, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who recently won much approval at home over a series of successful operations against organised crime, was critical of the judiciary.

While police did "everything possible to present good evidence at court," the judicial system failed to hand down sentences, Tsvetanov said.

Failure to come to scratch in the area of justice and internal affairs prompted Brussels to impose a special monitoring mechanism on Bulgaria and neighbouring Romania, when they joined the EU in 2007.

The commission releases progress reports on the two Balkan countries every year.

European Commission Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification for Bulgaria and Romania