”We will fulfil our commitments. You can see that we are ahead of Romania again. I am convinced that by the end of 2018 we will have done everything that the EC wants from us to do. I’m optimistic. In Brussels, they are convinced that everything we need to do will be done.”
Such an assessment was made by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov of the EC report during the inspection of the construction activities of the Eastern Tangent of the Sofia Ring Road, novinite.com reports.
He stressed that he had spoken with the first Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, from who the Bulgarian PM has heard the assessment that there has been progress since May.
“We see progress in many areas, but still more work is needed,” said EU Commission First Vice President Vice-President, Frans Timmermans, on the Commission’s report released on Wednesday on progress in Bulgaria under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism.
“I hope the Bulgarian government will implement all the planned reforms and avoid the retreat in order to put an end to the monitoring mechanism in line with the Commission’s mandate,” he said.
The CVM report on Wednesday reads that “the Commission’s last report in January 2017 took stock of overall progress in the past ten years and identified 17 specific recommendations which would help Bulgaria move towards fulfilment of all CVM benchmarks. Today’s report notes that significant progress has been achieved on these recommendations. While political uncertainty led to some delays in the implementation of reforms early in the year, the reform process has regained momentum since May, even if final outcomes are still to be seen in areas requiring legislative reform and government action, such as the fight against corruption. In the judiciary, important developments have also taken place this year, notably with the election of a new Supreme Judicial Council, the impact of which should begin to show in the coming year.
While the Commission cannot yet conclude that any of the benchmarks are satisfactorily fulfilled, it remains of the opinion that, with a continued political steer and a determination to advance the reform, Bulgaria should be able to fulfil the outstanding recommendations, and therefore satisfactorily meet the CVM benchmarks, in the near future. The Commission will assess progress again towards the end of 2018.”