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Bulgaria is being called down by European Commission

 
 
Reply Mon 18 Feb, 2008 08:59 am
Hey, hey everyone! I think yo'all heard already that late in January "The European Commission recommended that the finance ministry refrain from making payments on infrastructure projects (in Bulgaria) funded by the EU and from signing new agreements in the road sector until an inquiry into corruption allegations against three road agency officials has been concluded," (EU freezes infrastructure funds to Bulgaria over corruption)

As for me, that's whole lot of bullshit. I don't think anyone in European commission might care about some road agency officials in some shabby country like Bulgaria even though there was a case of some corruption. I'm sure that the real thing is that Brussels wants to have control over economic development of Bulgaria and in particular its partnership with Moscow in energy supply sphere. Freezing infrastructure funds is very likely to be a reaction of Brussels on South Stream construction project that will pass through Bulgaria and is believed to be a rival to the Nabucco project which goal is to provide self-dependence of European Union from energy supplies from Russia.

You see, in every single event that takes place in EU one should be looking for some political background in the first instance. Only in this case you may know the truth.
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Brandon9000
 
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Reply Mon 18 Feb, 2008 10:35 am
Government corruption is a huge problem in Bulgaria, so the charge is plausible.

I am also curious as to what knowledge or personal experiences of yours give rise to the assertion that Bulgaria is a "shabby" country. I've been there, and it didn't look particularly shabby to me. Parts of it were very beautiful. Also, coming from a suburb of New York City, I can say that the capitol, Sofia, struck me as being like a miniature New York City. I bought my wife cosmetics at an Estee Lauder store there. They've made an immense amount of progress since their communist overlords left in 1989.
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nimh
 
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Reply Sun 24 Feb, 2008 02:31 pm
Re: Bulgaria is being called down by European Commission
Anastas42 wrote:
As for me, that's whole lot of bullshit. I don't think anyone in European commission might care about some road agency officials in some shabby country like Bulgaria even though there was a case of some corruption.

Well, I do. The EU channels huge amounts of subsidies into the new Member States. That money is raised from taxes, which basically means that the wages of people in countries like Germany, Denmark and Holland are garnished to pay for subsidies to countries like Greece and Bulgaria. That's already creating resentment in the richer countries, so the EU has to be careful here.

I myself am actually all for these subsidies, but I agree that if the EU is going to spend billions of tax money in South and Eastern Europe, they'd better make sure that it isnt slushed away into corruption rackets straight away. Because if that happens it's a matter of time before the already wary citizens in the richer countries rebel. So the EU has very good reasons to keep a close eye on corruption issues, and pull rank whenever it looks like its infrastructure funding is being wasted by corrupt state agencies.

Welcome to A2K, though, even if we disagree!
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