Both President Georgi Purvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev have sought to put the decision by the European Commission to deny Bulgaria 220 million euro in Phare pre-accessio funds in a pan-European context.

Purvanov's first reaction to the EC decision, made because Brussels said that the Bulgarian Cabinet had not done enough to fight corruption, was that Bulgaria was likely to fall victim to political struggles in the light of next year's elections for Members of the European Parliament.

Speaking to reporters on November 26 2008 in the central Bulgaria town of Veliko Turnovo, Purvanov said: "There is a tendency for Bulgaria to become a victim in the fight among the main European parties to win the MEP elections".

As reported by Bulgarian news agency Focus, Purvanov said that the Bulgarian Government was responsible for its actions and there had to be an effective dialogue between the Government and the EC on overcoming the problems.

He asked that those responsible should be named when analysis of the situation was done.   "A lot has been done in fighting corruption in Bulgaria in recent years and not recording this fact [by the EC] is incorrect," Purvanov said.

Speaking in Germany, where he is currently on a two-day official visit, Stanishevs' reaction was more direct. German news agency DPA quoted Stanishev as saying that he felt disappointed with the EC and that Bulgaria has been treated differently by the commission compared to other EU members states who also had problems with corruption and EU funds.

The EC was unfair to Bulgaria and the loss of the millions of EU funds could affect the country's internal political situation, especially in the light of next years' general elections for Parliament, Stanishev said.

Justice Minister Miglena Tacheva and Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev both defended  Bulgaria's judiciary which is often blamed by the media and Bulgarian society for being ineffective against corruption. The two, however, also accepted a share of some of the responsibility.

On her way to the weekly session of the Supreme Judicial Council, Tacheva said that she did not accept accusations that the judiciary lacked efficiency.

"I do not accept accusations that the judiciary is the only one to be blamed for the lost EU money," news agencies quoted Tacheva as saying. "A court cannot make a ruling when the prosecutors have not filed an indictment."

Velchev said that indeed it was not correct to put all the blame on the judiciary, and everyone, including prosecutors, had to bear responsibility. "There hardly is a state institution that is not responsible for the loss of the money," he said.

Velchev said that prosecutors were almost ready with the indictment against Vesselin Georgiev, former head of the state National Road Infrastructure Fund, who was forced to resign in January 2008 because of an unrelated corruption row, when a media investigation found that he had handed out contracts worth tens of millions of leva to a company on whose board of directors of which he previously was a member and where he was replaced by his brother.

Velchev said that Meglena Plougchieva, appointed earlier in 2008 as Deputy Prime Minister for EU Funds Management, was the last person to be blamed for the situation.

- Opposition parties' reaction