Brussels, 26/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - Bulgaria is doing everything it can to demonstrate that it is acting to combat corruption and to reform its judicial system in order to avoid sanctions being imposed by the European Commission following its next report on 23 July (EUROPE 9674 and 9594). As evidence, the Bulgarian authorities have recently requested help from experts at the American Center for Democracy (ACD) in analysing the plans implemented by the government. The ACD concludes that Bulgaria has made “significant progress” in areas such as governance, the criminal justice system, judicial independence and fighting corruption. The ACD's conclusion is clear: “Penalising Bulgaria will be counterproductive. It could even destabilise the political and economic climate while the Stanishev government is striving to intensify and step up healthy governance reforms”. Bulgaria recently froze some €88.4 million which it had received from the EU for road-building because of several problems and dubious financial management. Sofia also asked the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) to send experts to monitor the projects' state of play. (EUROPE 9594). (B.C./transl.fl)