Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - With a new illegal phone-tapping scandal currently rocking Bulgaria in the middle of an electoral campaign, the Party of European Socialists (PES), currently headed up by the Bulgarian Socialist leader Sergei Stanishev, called on the Commission on Wednesday to open an investigation into the actions attributed to former and current director of election operations for the centre-right GERB party Home Affairs Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov who is alleged to have carried out illegal phone taps on various political figures, judges, business people and others, under the government of Boïko Borissov. The current president of the country, Rosen Plevneliev, and even the European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva, are believed to have been “listened to” in this process. This illegal phone-tapping was revealed by public prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov on Monday 15 April at a press conference in Sofia, the country's media have reported. However, the GERB director of operations and former minister is currently standing in the general elections to take place on 12 May, following the collapse of the government in February 2013. Due to a series of protests against the high costs of living and electricity costs in particular, the Borissov government was effectively forced to throw in the towel and stand down.
The Commission must now ensure that the coming elections take place in the proper form, Stanishev requests in a press release, calling on Commissioner Viviane Reding to put aside “her political affiliation, break her silence and finally put an end to this erosion of democratic standards”.
Since 2007, the country has been monitored by the Commission through the cooperation and verification mechanism (CVM) and is the subject of regular reports, which frequently reveal widespread corruption in the institutions and a lacklustre fight against organised crime. Nor is the practice of targeted assassinations rare in Bulgaria, according to these reports. Asked about these revelations on Tuesday, the Commission spokesperson for CVM, Mark Gray, said that he had taken note of these elements, as the Commission had been informed of them by the public prosecutor. However, it will not be making any comment until the current investigation is closed, the spokesperson added. This phone-tapping scandal is by no means new, as former Prime Minister Boïko Borissov was also caught up in similar affairs on several occasions, for example, in early 2011, when he publicly acknowledged the practice of phone-tapping, even of his own ministers, in order to be able to “check their activities”, as he worded his justification at the time. (SP/transl.fl)