The EU's inability to pressure Bulgaria for reform

José Manuel Barosso, president of the European Commission, yesterday announced that the EU's progress report, due to be published on June 27, will contain sharp criticism. Political scientist Vladimir Shopov speculates on what action the EU intends to take. He contends that enacting the safeguard clause would not be a "productive measure". "The idea of the safeguard clause is only complicating the debate about what form further reforms can take now that the EU lacks effective instruments to push through reforms in justice and domestic policy... The EU seems to have resigned itself to the fact that the most that can be achieved in Bulgaria is stabilisation at a low level. Beyond the world of politics, Bulgarians are reacting with a mixture of resignation, shame and hope that someone will turn up who is able to establish some measure of order in this regime of criminal-political networks which appears to have settled in for good."

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