April 15 (SeeNews) - The European Parliament (EP) said it called on Bulgaria to beef up state mechanisms in order to improve its investigations into possible instances of corruption and misuse of public funds in the country that could have a financial impact on the bloc.
Bulgaria needs to implement "real changes" in its judiciary and prosecution systems where investigations have produced no results to date, the EU legislative body said in a statement which was published on Thursday. The press release summed up the results of a visit by six members of the EP (MEPs) to Sofia earlier this week.
"We are calling for better transparency and analysis of EU-funded projects, and continuous and effective fight against corruption in Bulgaria," Tomas Zdechovsky, head of the delegation and a Czech MEP from the EPP party, said.
Measures that the delegation recommended to Bulgarian authorities included simplifying the national application and management processes for EU programmes, establishing a single straightforward methodology for EU project management and reporting as well as improving dialogue and cooperation among all national institutions involved.
The MEPs, from the EP's Committee on Budgetary Control, completed a three-day visit to the country earlier this week. Together with representatives of the European Commission (EC) and Court of Auditors, they spoke to civil society organisations and investigative journalists, the Bulgarian audit authority and officials from the EU funds managing and monitoring authority. The delegation also met Bulgarian prime minister Kiril Petkov, government officials involved in the administration and management of EU funds, the Bulgarian prosecutor general as well as lawmakers from Bulgarian parliament's Corruption Prevention Committee.
During a visit to Bulgaria last week, EC president Ursula von der Leyen endorsed Bulgaria's 13.5 billion levs ($7.5 billion/6.9 billion euro) plan for economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The plan is set to be formally approved by the Council of the European Union around the beginning of May, before funds can start to be disbursed under its programmes.
Problems with judicial independence and alleged widespread corruption practices at all levels of government in Bulgaria were also pinpointed, along with other concerns, by the US State Department in its 2021 Human Rights Practices report issued on Tuesday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)