The European Commission has seen some new momentum in Bulgaria's efforts to improve the judiciary and combat corruption since its July 2008 report, the EC said in its July 22 2009 interim report on the state of the country's judiciary and law enforcement.

The report is part of the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) that Bulgaria has been subject to since it joined the European Union in 2007.

This momentum, however, was more of a result of the efforts of individual actors in the prosecution service and the judiciary, the EC said.

However, these steps have been confined to the technical level and had limited impact because they were not adequately backed up by a broad political consensus or a convincing strategy to make the fight against organised crime and corruption the top priority for Bulgaria, the report said.

As a result, the public perception was that justice in Bulgaria is slow, sometimes inequitable, and in some cases subject to influence and interference. At the same time, the measures taken are seen as piecemeal and as not systematically followed up at all levels.

"What is still missing is sufficient political commitment for broader initiatives which could form a more decisive, strategic approach," the report said. "A profound reform of the judiciary has still not started," it said.

The July 2008 CVM report and the report on the administration of EU funds in Bulgaria resulted in a change in attitude and a more open and frank dialogue at all levels with the Bulgarian authorities, the report said.

"The widespread existence of organised crime and corruption is no longer denied and some efforts are being undertaken by the prosecution and the judiciary to combat these problems".

As one of Bulgaria's achievements the report highlights the establishment of a permanent unit of investigation of crimes against the financial system of the EU at the Prosecutor-General's Office, which was "an excellent initiative, as it combines several functions, intelligence, specialised knowledge, and investigation concerning a specific type of criminality under one authority.

The head of the unit, Margarita Popova, was nominated by prime minister-to-be Boiko Borissov for the post of justice minister.

"The same efficient organisational set-up has not yet been established for organised crime where joint teams only operate on an ad hoc basis," the report says.

As to a major concern in the work of the judiciary, the report highlights also the complexity and formality of criminal procedure which "is in itself a major cause for the inefficiency of the judicial system. It forces investigation and prosecution to concentrate on simplistic methods to obtain evidence and to avoid complicated investigations".

The report also criticises the newly-adopted Amnesty Act which exempted from criminal proceedings, acts of negligence punishable up to five years, including those committed in public function prior to July 2008.

"This sends a message which conflicts with the government's commitment to eradicate corruption at all levels, in particular regarding negligent acts performed in public office".

"The Penal Code itself is outdated. The legal system therefore continues to show substantial shortcomings in particular in relation to the basic penal legislation, but also in relation to other important legislation, e.g. on the forfeiture of criminal assets".

Overall the EC's view is that the conditions for invoking a safeguard clause, which in Bulgaria's case can happen until the end of 2009, are not fulfilled but said that the CVM would only be removed when all the benchmarks it set have been satisfactorily fulfilled.