Word: bulgaria
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...government riddled with corruption and a country beset by crime. That's the European Commission's grim verdict on Bulgaria, a nation that was supposed to have cleaned up its act when it joined the European Union 18 months...
...Bulgaria and Romania were subject to special monitoring when they joined the E.U. in January 2007, because neither country was considered fully ready to meet the Union's probity standards. But while Romania was criticized in today's report, the Commission is not stopping aid to Bucharest. (Bulgarians grumble that Romania is just as corrupt, but has been smarter at marketing its reforms and hiding the abuses...
...Romania's southern neighbor is a different matter. Already the E.U.'s poorest member state, Bulgaria has been counting on substantial E.U. help, including $11 billion of structural assistance over the next five years, to maintain economic growth and encourage foreign investment. "These reports are a reality check," European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said today. "The institutions and systems are now in place but tangible results need to be achieved in investigating, prosecuting and judging cases of high-level corruption and organized crime...
...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...
...been less supportive. What really matters isn't what either does - or what the Russians say - but what the Iranians do. The closer Tehran is believed to having a nuclear weapon, Pentagon officials say, the more necessary such a Euroshield becomes. Wednesday's tests, Rice said while traveling in Bulgaria, are "evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one." - With reporting by Eben Harrell/London