Bulgaria – EU holds money back
In October we reviewed the EU’s conditions regarding Bulgaria’s anti-corruption agencies. One month later, with no changes being made, the Independent European Daily Express (IEDE) reported on this issue and provided us with updated information. The EU has withheld over 215 million EUR, and presently this will be withheld for six months. The IEDE reported that “[a]ccording to the Commission, the Bulgarian government is failing to establish a politically independent commission to combat corruption and illegally acquired assets. Bulgaria was previously given a clear deadline for this but failed to meet it.” The monies described are not accessible for six months, at which time there will be a review and if the Bulgarian government has met the requirements they will receive their monies.
Why do we care? This is a reminder that conditionalities are necessary and are hopefully useful in that it encourages governments to perform as expected, helping governments seemingly do the right thing. It is certainly not a guarantee and remind governments that they are not above conditionalities, if they do not continue to follow EU requirements, in this case of Bulgaria, which had agreed to anti-corruption actions. The bigger issue in this case is whether this conditionality will be important to Bulgaria. In the past there have been such conditionalities, in other countries, and in the case of some countries, there is a mere shrug, and they have ignored the conditionalities. The hope as far as Bulgaria is concerned is that this money will be important enough to lead Bulgaria to make the needed changes. As always, hope dies last.
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