Brussels, 18/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - During their joint visit to Bulgaria last week (13/14 January) European Commission President Romano Prodi and Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen encouraged the Bulgarian authorities to pursue their preparation for accession and not to ease off economic reform efforts. Membership talks, which will be officially launched with Bulgarian (and also with Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta) on 15 February, are only the "tip of the iceberg" in the country's EU membership process, while the large part of pre-accession work must be carried out daily in the candidate country itself, Mr Prodi and Mr Verheugen explained to their Bulgarian interlocutors, notably President Stoyanov and Prime Minister Kostov.
One of the priorities in the field of economic reform should be to create more transparency and security in Bulgaria for potential investors, with more effective anti-organised crime and corruption measures, they said. "The European Commission and the EU are ready to support Bulgaria in its preparations for accession and in the accession process as a whole", insisted Mr Prodi and Mr Verheugen. They recalled the important role played by Bulgaria for stabilisation throughout South East Europe.