Brussels, 31/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 31 October, the European Commission threatened to step up its surveillance of the country after the election by the Bulgarian parliament of two new judges for the country's constitutional court, one of whom is suspected of corruption and abuse of influence, which leads the Commission to have doubts about the his integrity.
In response to questions from Bulgarian reporters, European Commission spokesperson Olivier Bailly said that the Commission could easily require a further report on Bulgaria under the Cooperation and Vertification Mechanism (CVM) before the report scheduled for the end of next year. In July 2012, the Commission decided to relax its monitoring of Bulgaria, but not Romania. The Commission will be compiling an extra progress report on Romania before the end of the year in response to domestic political problems in the spring and summer of this year.
Regarding Bulgaria, the Commission had not ruled out on Wednesday the option of changing its decision, pointing out that it had asked the Bulgarian government and parliament to carry out a serious investigation into the corruption allegations for the new supreme court judge. Olivier Bailly says that the Commission has learned that despite these signals from the European Commission, Bulgaria has not carried out said investigations. The Commission still expects the Bulgarian authorities to shed full light on the suspicions surrounding the new supreme court judge and to report back to the EU Council of Ministers. The CVM system was established when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007. The CVM reports assess the independence of the two countries' legal systems and the fight against corruption and organised crime, and are a key component of the decision of whether to let the two countries join the Schengen passport-free travel area. EU interior ministers are demanding positive CVM reports before they will agree to let Bulgaria and Romania join Schengen. (SP/transl.fl)