Nobody in Bulgaria can claim to be surprised. Before the country joined the
EU its wholesale failure to tackle high-level corruption was the subject of
repeated public warnings. Having gained membership, those efforts became
even feebler. The Commission had said repeatedly that if things did not
improve it would cut off money—up to €11 billion in the 2007-2013 budget
period—needed to modernise decrepit communist-era infrastructure and improve
dire public services. The Commission will withdraw its accreditation to two
payment agencies, one in the finance ministry and another in the regional
development ministry, which were handling Phare funds. That is the simplest
step in bureaucratic and legal terms. But it may not be the last.
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SN
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Nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus ......
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