17 април 2007
EUphoria, for now
Much harder work is needed to tackle organised crime and corruption
BULGARIANS are still rejoicing over the release of their nurses from Libya. Most believe it was secured only because their country joined the European Union in January. Sergey Stanishev, the Socialist prime minister, encourages this view, because it reinforces his shaky coalition. So does President Georgi Parvanov, another Socialist in trouble, who welcomed the six at the airport and promptly signed official pardons.
Bulgaria is in the honeymoon stage of EU membership. Accession has fuelled a construction boom from the Black Sea to Sofia. Foreigners are pouring money into property; local builders are so scarce that workers are being recruited in Belarus and Ukraine. The economy will grow by over 6% this year. So many Bulgarians have taken mortgages that the central bank has introduced loan curbs.
Yet some are still waiting for their EU benefits. The Socialists put a junior coalition partner, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, in charge of the agriculture ministry. Its leader, Ahmed Dogan, a wily politician from Bulgaria's Turkish minority, is good at finding jobs for supporters, less so at getting EU money flowing. Eight months after accession, most Bulgarian farmers are still waiting for their first cheques from Brussels.
Mr Stanishev and Mr Parvanov also seem unaware that membership brings obligations. In June the European Commission, under pressure from its Bulgarian and Romanian members, softened a report chastising both governments for doing too little to tackle corruption and organised crime. But if more progress is not made in a year's time, the pair may face sanctions.
The report singled out Bulgaria on organised crime. Contract killings persist in Sofia, as does corruption among prosecutors and judges. Despite efforts to clean up the prosecution service, not a single suspect in a contract killing has been convicted. Worse, the government has stopped trying. It is months since the commission against corruption set up by Mr Stanishev held a meeting. Rumen Ovcharov, who resigned as energy minister two months ago amid corruption allegations, still wields influence behind the scenes, say EU officials.
Mr Parvanov is now found to have had links with the communist-era security service. Bulgaria has opened its files to scrutiny — years after other east Europeans. Mr Parvanov claims not to have known that the man who asked him to edit a book about relations with Macedonia was a spy. A crucial 36 pages are missing from his file. The president's approval rating has plummeted.
Local elections in October will give the voters a chance to protest. Polls suggest that Gerb, a new right-wing party led by Boiko Borisov, the mayor of Sofia, may do well. The Socialists have been discomfited by the shooting on July 11th of Manol Velev, a businessman. Mr Velev, who is in a coma, is married to the sports minister and paid for Mr Parvanov's re-election campaign last year. Voters fret that the politicians' inertia may be letting criminals take over.