Word: bulgaria
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...very purpose had been to contain the Soviet Union in the wake of World War II. The Red Army had just broken the back of Hitler's Wehrmacht and put Moscow in control of the Baltic states (annexed at the outset of the war), Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. Having watched Central Europe transformed by Soviet military power into a patchwork of authoritarian vassal states, Western Europe was only too willing to join an all-for-one military alliance with the U.S. and Canada to even up the odds in the event of further Soviet expansionism...
...while Bulgaria showed some reformist zeal in the run-up to joining the European club, momentum quickly slipped once Sofia was in, despite repeated warnings from Commission officials that lack of progress could hurt funding. This proves that "E.U. membership is no magic bullet, " says Diana Kovatcheva, Bulgarian head of anti-corruption group Transparency International. "The lack of administrative and management capacity and political will to undertake substantive anti-corruption measures hamper their success and enforcement." In the past, wayward new members have avoided punishment because Brussels' attention has slipped. The Commission's new tougher approach will establish whether punishment...
...Bulgaria's plight is also a failure for the E.U. The lure of E.U. membership is often held up as the best way to get countries to reform. The chance to join Europe is one reason Serbia saw to it that wanted Bosnian Serb strongman Radovan Karadzic was arrested this week. Serbian authorities can now look forward to new trade agreements, and to starting the long and laborious process of joining...
...There is little doubt that the situation is dire. Since 1990, more than 150 people in Bulgaria have been killed in contract killings linked to corruption and organized crime, but there has not been a single conviction in any of those cases. Sofia's central cemetery is dotted with marble monuments engraved with life-size portraits of underworld figures known by sinister names like the Doctor, the Russian or the Godfather. Senior government officials have leaked files to mafia suspects and the interior minister himself had to resign after he was found consorting with two dubious businessmen. Ten Bulgarian...
...Commission report says Bulgaria's new anti-corruption agencies are effectively toothless and that there is no political will to deal with the fraudulent mishandling of E.U. funds. In one recent example, in February, police busted a criminal ring that had allegedly skimmed $11.8 million in E.U. farm subsidies by buying secondhand equipment for the meat-processing industry and presenting...