It has already turned into something dull – we have been listening to the same chorus ever since our 2007 EU accession: “reforms in justice, enough with corruption, enough with organized crime”. Yesterday the EC voiced to the public another report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, tracing Bulgaria’s progress in the reforming of the judicial system, as well as in the fight with corruption and organized crime over the past year.

The assessments and recommendations were known in advance and we are now familiar with the conclusions – organized crime is prospering, along with corruption, including the high level form of it. As far as justice is concerned, after some turbulence over the past months and the half-hearted constitutional amendments its swamp returned to peace, at least for now. The dogs may bark but the caravan goes on…

Not that Italy, Spain and Great Britain don’t have no corruption and organized crime, but these phenomena are locked there within some admissible frames. Besides that ministers, MPs and magistrates end into prison or resign there occasionally, unlike Bulgaria.

However, let’s take a look at the document, written with the virtuoso manner of the Brussels diplomacy. We read there that the problems of the judicial authority in Bulgaria remain unsolved, the level of corruption remains high and the institutions are incapable of coping with the challenges. The slow progress on the fight with high-level corruption and on court cases, related to organized crime are still undermining the public trust in justice, the report further reads. At the same time it is commented that over the last year Bulgaria took some important steps, in order to bring reforms back on the agenda. Now it is time for the next stage when the judicial reform and anti-corruption strategies will be followed by actions, leading to concrete results.

As usual, the second government of Boyko Borissov went through its own and optimistic perusal of the report. Vice Premier and Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said at a press conference that as a whole the monitoring report of Brussels was “objective, not only in regard with the problems found, but also as far as the positive signs, viewed by the commission in our actions so far.” According to the minister the remarks were much fewer than in previous reports, regarding the fight with organized crime. Vice Premier Tomislav Donchev also pointed out that the report exposed “clear ascertainments, comments, encouragements or recommendations for each authority and institution”. Donchev alarmed that there was organized resistance against the reforms and foresaw that there had to be organized support as well. Vice Premier Meglena Kuneva also assessed the report as a positive one and promised the feeling of actual progress in the monitored spheres for 2016… Who are we to trust – Brussels or our politicians?

The words of former MP with the Grand National Assembly Nikolay Slatinski back in 1989 after the fall of the communist regime would form the suitable conclusion of this text: “I do not expect hara-kiri of the authority these days. It thinks nothing has happened. It just got lucky. With the right people…”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev