Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06SOFIA827
2006-06-13 12:57:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Sofia
Cable title:  

BULGARIA: SHORT WINDOW TO COMPLETE "ACTION PLAN"

Tags:  PGOV EUN BU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO7076
PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHSF #0827/01 1641257
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 131257Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY SOFIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2059
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SOFIA 000827 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/12/2016
TAGS: PGOV EUN BU
SUBJECT: BULGARIA: SHORT WINDOW TO COMPLETE "ACTION PLAN"
FOR EU ENTRY

REF: SOFIA 706

Classified By: Ambassador John Beyrle for reasons 1.4 B & D

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SOFIA 000827

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/12/2016
TAGS: PGOV EUN BU
SUBJECT: BULGARIA: SHORT WINDOW TO COMPLETE "ACTION PLAN"
FOR EU ENTRY

REF: SOFIA 706

Classified By: Ambassador John Beyrle for reasons 1.4 B & D


1. (C) SUMMARY: Bulgaria presented its Action Plan to the
European Community on June 8 after weeks of collaboration to
identify the most important weaknesses that threaten its 2007
entry. The government has until mid-July's first draft of
the EC report to make real progress and begin swaying opinion
in Brussels and Member States. All observers agree organized
crime and corruption are the most deficient areas, and that
Bulgaria needs to succeed both substantively and in terms of
presentation. The GOB's move to require government officials
to fully disclose assets, progress in efforts against money
laundering, and measures to establish greater independence
for the judiciary are helping Bulgaria make its case. The
USG needs to continue to press the Bulgarians to come up with
concrete successes against criminals and corrupt officials,
while telling Brussels and the Member States that more can be
done to shore up Bulgaria - and therefore the EU - once they
are in the club. END SUMMARY

FINAL EFFORTS TOWARDS ENTRY; TIME RUNNING SHORT
-------------- --


2. (C) After close coordination with the European
Commission, the Bulgarian government approved an "Action
Plan" June 8 which outlines the steps they believe necessary
to ensure entry in January 2007. Minister for European
Affairs Meglena Kuneva told Ambassador Beyrle the same day
that she had worked closely with the Commission to identify
priority areas and come up with concrete goals, but that the
window for making improvements is very short. Although
September 7 now appears to be the final cutoff date for
accomplishments to be fully considered in the EC's report,
the first draft will be completed by July 14. Kuneva
believes most of Bulgaria's real efforts need to occur before
that deadline. This gives Bulgaria essentially five weeks to
show substantial movement on the most serious "red card"
areas listed by the EC in its May 16 (reftel.) However,
press reports lend some hope to Bulgaria's case. According
to Reuters on June 9, an EC preliminary report stated "the
European Council remains convinced that, with the necessary

political will, both (Romania and Bulgaria) can overcome the
deficits . . . (to accede on) January 1, 2007."

RED CARD AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
--------------


3. (C) In discussing the specifics of the Action Plan,
Kuneva said she was most concerned about increasing
transparency in the GOB's law enforcement efforts,
particularly the links between money laundering and organized
crime, corruption, and the EC's request for a report on
contract murder investigations. She is comfortable that most
of the technical issues will be accomplished in time, and
thought that the remaining agriculture issues will be
resolved. Kuneva pointed to the cooperation of the Central
Bank in signing off on modifications to the Bank Secrecy Law,
which will allow government access to information that will
assist prosecutors.


4. (U) The EC has said Bulgaria must step up its efforts in
several areas. The GOB's action plan outlines measures to be
taken in the following areas:

Corruption:
- Amend public disclosure laws for politicians, judges, and
public servants, putting all information on the Internet
after review by the National Revenue Agency;
- Draft lobbying legislation to improve transparency of the
legislative process;
- Strengthen financial reporting procedures of the political
parties;
- Improve capabilities of the Inspector General and the
National Audit Office.

Organized Crime and Money Laundering:
- Increase Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) staff by 10;
- Strengthen inter-agency cooperation between the FIA, police
and prosecutors;
- Establish Financial Crimes units within the Ministry of
Interior and the Prosecutor's Office;
- Amend legislation on money laundering to bring in line with
EU acquis;
- Draft a police training plan for financial crimes;
- Strengthen police units working on contract killings;
- Improve regulation of private security firms and gun
licenses.

Judicial Reform:
- Review new Criminal Procedure Code;

SOFIA 00000827 002 OF 003


- Institute random case assignments to judges;
- Approve Civil Procedure Code;
- Tighten ambiguities in constitutional amendments regarding
independence of the Judiciary.

Agriculture:
- Establish land parcel identification system;
- Contract for rendering collection and treatment plant;
- Complete veterinary border inspection posts.

Financial Control:
-Begin certifying internal auditors;
-Financial Management and Control training of mayors and
regional officials;
-Improve coordination between the government and NGOs in
structural fund management.

Energy:
-Guarantee the irreversible closure of Kozloduy Units 1 to 4,
including beginning the process of dismantling Units 1 and 2,
and amending the licenses for units 3 and 4 to allow only
storage of spent nuclear fuel.


5. (C) Kuneva feels the problems are manageable. She told
Amb. Beyrle a large part of the problem is perception -
particularly in the area of organized crime. Bulgaria, she
indicated, continues to suffer from the perceived lack of
commitment by Interior Minister Petkov exhibited during
previous monitoring missions. Kuneva is focusing her efforts
on internal planning and working with the EC rather than the
Member States; she observed wryly that "begging" for entry
now in EU capitals is not a strong tactic. Kuneva stressed
that Bulgaria needs to give the impression of being more
cooperative with the EU and to show that it understands the
need to follow the rules if it wants to join the club.


6. (C) Beyrle told Kuneva we will continue to accentuate the
positive - including several recent U.S. business initiatives
- but also need to see concrete success in areas such as
money laundering. Kuneva asked that the Ambassador and other
U.S. officials help her educate her own colleagues on the
need to be cooperative and positive, and to dispense with
cynical attitudes about the process. Kuneva said that if
Bulgarians feel the changes are necessary only to please
Brussels, they will create a Potemkin village and will not
take the efforts necessary for real progress. She asked the
Ambassador's assistance in ensuring cooperation from all
ministries in meeting EU goals.

RACE WITH ROMANIA
--------------


7. (C) Beyrle asked how Kuneva would measure Bulgaria's
progress against Romania's. Kuneva conceded that Romania is
doing a better job of selling their fight against organized
crime than Bulgaria, in large part because they have a
"brilliant" and transparent law. She said externally
Bulgaria is already being compared to Romania in every
aspect, but did not comment on whether Bulgaria could be
separated from Romania on the final decision of entry. (In
late May, EC Ambassador to Bulgaria Dimitris Kourkoulas told
us that it was unlikely the two countries would be separated.
However, if problems were exacerbated here, and the EU
decided to send a message to its restless public, Bulgaria
could become a scapegoat and be delayed, Kourkoulas said.)

SAFEGUARD CLAUSE: NO LONGER LIKELY?
--------------


8. (C) Beyrle asked how the government would react if the
decision to admit Bulgaria in 2007 came with an "asterisk" in
the form of a safeguard clause or monitoring mechanism. (PM
Stanishev and other Bulgarian officials have been quoted as
warning that such "conditional" accession would relegate
Bulgaria to an unacceptable second-class-member status.)
Surprisingly, Kuneva said she felt that the EU was
increasingly disinclined to condition the accession of
Bulgaria or Romania. A safeguard clause would be a de facto
admission that Bulgaria and/or Romania were being admitted
under relaxed standards, she said -- something highly
inadvisable in the current climate of enlargement skepticism
among some EU member states.

BULGARIAN POLITICS OF ENTRY
--------------


9. (C) Currently, almost all Bulgarian political parties are
united in their desire to obtain 2007 entry - even those
parties that might be able to capitalize in the short-term if
there were a decision to delay. Kuneva told us that the
current three-party coalition would remain together if
Bulgaria enters in 2007. The head of the NMSS party, former

SOFIA 00000827 003 OF 003


PM Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha, is a man of his word, said
Kuneva (herself a member of the NMSS.) Plus, his party needs
the coalition to survive - early elections could be
disastrous for the NMSS.

COMMENT
--------------


10. (C) We agree with Kourkoulas's comments that the
Bulgarian Action Plan is "well-prepared, reasonable and
feasible," but clearly there remains much to do in a very
short time - even if Parliament and the government cut short
their summer vacations, as seems to be the plan.
Accordingly, the government appears to recognize that the EU
won't be bought off by promises or semantics this time - they
need to take concrete action. An effort is currently
underway to make fast progress on the first anti-corruption
goal -- full, public disclosure of assets by government
officials -- and we also expect further legislative changes
before September establishing greater judicial independence.
The agriculture requirements are largely technical issues
that can easily be accomplished by fall, in the view of most
observers. That leaves organized crime and money laundering
as the perennial toughest nuts to crack. Our own efforts to
push for indictments on money laundering through better
cooperation in the Bulgarian interagency process are
beginning to show the first slender signs of progress (septel
to follow with more detail on that.) This could result in
something more substantial by the fall, and we will keep
bearing down on the money laundering front to that end.


11. (C) Our private messages, meanwhile, need to remain
consistent:

-- to the Bulgarians, that only substantial, measurable
progress in stemming organized crime and corruption count, at
this now-or-never climax of the process;

-- and to the Europeans, that Bulgaria's weaker points will
be remedied more effectively through membership in the EU
than during an extra year left waiting by the door.
Beyrle