Comprehensive Monitoring Report

Contents
	Еxecutive summary
	Introduction
	Political Criteria
	Economic Criteria
	Commitments and Requirements arising from the Accession Negotiations
	Annexes

The 2004 Report confirmed the conclusions of previous reports that Bulgaria fulfilled the political criteria. However, the following areas were identified in the conclusions of the 2004 Report as requiring further improvements: public administration reform (all aspects, but especially local and regional administration); justice reform (all aspects, including police and measures to combat organised crime); anti-corruption measures; trafficking in human beings; freedom of expression/media independence; ill-treatment in custody and prison conditions; childcare and mental healthcare system; protection of minorities and integration of the Roma minority.

The principal purpose of this chapter is to asses the state of play on the issues identified last year as requiring further improvements.

1. Political developments

General elections were held in Bulgaria in June 2005. Official turnout was 55.76% of the electorate. The BSP-led Coalition for Bulgaria (socialists) emerged as the biggest political force in the new parliament, gaining 30.95% of the votes. The National Movement Simeon II (NMS) ranked second with 19.88%, ahead of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) with 12.81%. These were followed by the “Ataka” Coalition with 8.14%, the United Democratic Forces (UDF) with 7.68%, the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB) with 6.44% and the Bulgarian Popular Union (BPU) with 5.19%.

In July 2005, the National Assembly adopted a declaration on the priorities for the parliament’s work. These priorities include the adoption of European integration-related legislation, speedy implementation of judicial reform, the establishment of a framework to stimulate economic development and investment, access to quality healthcare and education, and the full-fledged integration of various social and ethnic groups.

Almost two months after the general elections of June, the Coalition for Bulgaria, as strongest grouping in the Bulgarian Parliament, the National Movement Simeon II and the Movement for Rights and Freedom signed a coalition agreement on the formation of a government in August 2005. The new government is headed by Sergey Stanishev, as Prime Minister, and the distribution of the 17 ministerial seats between the three parties BSP/MSN/MRF is 8/5/3, with one minister being non-partisan. The government held its first session in August 2005.

Bulgaria has achieved an acceptable degree of alignment as regards the transposition of directives, but although efforts were made to minimise the interruption of the legislative process due to the election, the adoption of certain key pieces of legislation was disrupted by the election process, and the momentum of the implementation of reforms was somewhat delayed.

2. Implementation of recommendations for improvements

Public administration

Although public administration reform remained a government priority during the reporting period, Bulgaria has made only very limited progress with regard to relevant legislative developments.

The structures in charge of preparing and implementing public administration reform are difficult to assess, as important changes are still planned, including the establishment of a fully-fledged Ministry of State Administration.

The envisaged amendment to the Law on Administration has still not been adopted. Consequently, the division of responsibilities between the political and administrative levels of the administration still has to be clarified, the position of chief secretaries in the administration regulated, an effective internal control on its work established and all agencies unified under the control of the relevant parent ministries.

The draft Code of Administrative Procedure has also not been adopted yet. It is intended to establish a legal procedure for the implementation of administrative acts and dispute settlement, to better regulate citizens’ rights and to increase administrative and judicial control over all administrative acts. In the meantime, most basic procedural principles for control over the public administration are defined in a dispersed way by three other pieces of legislation, as well as the Law on Administration. Principles and procedures such as administrative and judicial review of administrative acts through appeal, and the imposition of administrative penalties as a result of the violation of administrative law are included in these pieces of legislation. Their interpretation and implementation is, however, often governed by the rules of procedure of each administrative body, thus creating conditions which provide room for inefficiency.

Bulgaria needs to give priority to closing gaps in existing legislation and to ensure the establishment of a legislative framework guaranteeing the principles of legality, accountability, reliability and predictability in the workings of the public administration. Further efforts are required in terms of making the public service more resistant towards corruption, including preventive measures.

Openness and transparency of public service, notably as regards access to public information, are covered by the Law on Access to Public Information, as amended in 2003. Although there has been an increase in the number of decisions issued by the Bulgarian administration on the basis of this law, and its acceptance has increased, the impact of the law remains limited.

The first national Ombudsman and a deputy Ombudsman were finally elected in April 2005 on the basis of legislation which had existed since January 2004 and which provided for the election of an Ombudsman by March 2004. The internal rules on the organisation and activities of the Ombudsman entered into force in June 2005. The Ombudsman’s office has not yet been definitively set up. A number of local ombudsmen have existed since the beginning of 2004. They are located in municipalities and are elected by municipal councils.

With regard to decentralisation, the Council for Modernisation approved a Strategy for Decentralisation in May 2005, covering the decentralisation of authorities and fiscal decentralisation. On the basis of the strategy, action plans will have to be prepared. However, decentralisation as such has not progressed very far in reality. Attempts at administrative and fiscal decentralisation to the municipal level have stalled and are gradually giving way to a deconcentration of responsibilities and tasks to the NUTS (nomenclature of statistical territorial units) II level, where administrative structures are currently being strengthened.

Under the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance, programme budgeting is being introduced in Bulgarian ministries. There are currently 11 ministries participating in the pilot scheme. The Ministry of the Environment is expected in 2005 to be the first ministry to present a fully programmed budget to the parliament.

The legal basis for the status of civil servants and other public employees was introduced through amendments to the Civil Service Law in 2003. However, in the absence of a central body in charge of implementing the different aspects of civil service legislation, the envisaged full assessment of implementation and of performance after its first year in force cannot be made.

Training is developing well and represents an incentive for civil servants. According to the Civil Service Law, 0.8% of the budget for civil servants’ salaries should be available for training purposes. The main training body is the Institute for Public Administration and European Integration, which is attached to the Council of Ministers and is organising courses for newly recruited employees, for senior managers, and also on more specific subjects such as public procurement. Other training bodies include the School of Public Finance (Ministry of Finance), the School for Magistrates (Ministry of Justice) and the Diplomatic School (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). In 2004, 20 683 employees from the central administration and 1 961 employees of local government administrations underwent compulsory training.

In April 2005, the Council for the Modernisation of Public Administration, an inter-ministerial committee, approved a White Paper on the Modernisation of the Administration, which sets out further proposals for improving service delivery, better policy-making, public service, budgetary control and accountability, following the best European practices. If fully implemented, the White Paper could be a positive tool in the modernisation of public administration.

Justice system

For the fourth year now, a reform strategy is being implemented. The legal framework has undergone important changes, including in relation to the establishment of a probation system, witness protection, extradition, international private law, enforcement of civil judgments, legal aid, the execution of penalties and alternative dispute resolution (mediation). These new provisions require swift and correct implementation. Hence it is important that implementing regulations be adopted quickly, that staff be trained to implement them without further delays and that sufficient budgetary provisions be made available. Expected legislation has not been adopted in relation to civil procedures. Overall, there remains considerable scope for improving the technical quality of draft laws in the justice area in view of ensuring a smoother implementation. It is also recommended that monitoring mechanisms be established in order to follow up on the impact a new law generates.

In contrast to legislative developments, the structure of the judicial system has not changed. So far, the impact of the reform on the efficiency of the justice system remains limited, in particular as far as the problem of case backlogs is concerned. Despite some ongoing progress, very considerable efforts are still needed, in particular to improve the pre-trial phase.

Regarding the reform of the pre-trial phase legislative progress was made. However, in practice progress in the combating of organised crime remained very limited. In December 2004, the Council of Ministers adopted a “National Concept for the Reform of Penal Justice”, on the basis of which the new Penal Procedure Code was prepared. In April 2005, some amendments to the previous Penal Procedure Code entered into force, which further limited the possibilities for transforming police investigations into preliminary proceedings carried out by an investigating magistrate. The amendments also provided for a clearer distinction between the competences of the actors involved in the pre-trial phase, so that the role of investigating magistrates has been reduced and transferred to police investigators. So far, however, the impact of the April 2005 amendments remained limited, despite closer cooperation between police, investigation and prosecution bodies via the introduction of the “team work” principle at local and regional levels, which can be observed in a number of places following the Joint Declaration of December 2004 on Cooperation in Reforming Criminal Justice, signed by the Minister for Justice, the Prosecutor-General and the Head of the Investigation Service.

In October 2005, a new Penal Procedure Code was adopted with the aim of doing away with the complicated multi-layer investigation structure and of simplifying the lengthy and formalistic procedures. It remains, however, to be seen to which extent the new code addresses these shortcomings. This reform has to be accompanied by an increase in the efficiency and accountability of the court system. Furthermore, there is a need for revision of other legal acts, including the Judicial System Act, the Attorney Act or the Ministry of the Interior Act, with a view to considerably enhancing the efficiency of the Bulgarian penal justice system and establishing the required capacity to deal with organised crime and corruption. Last but not least, no steps were taken in the reporting period to modernise the prosecution service, although there remains a need to make it more transparent and accountable.

On the administrative capacity side, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) now benefits from increased administrative support and numbers 61 employees. Two new departments were created in 2005 and the SJC obtained more offices. The SJC also continued to appoint, promote, transfer and dismiss magistrates. In 2004, the SJC organised a competition for the appointment of junior magistrates, resulting in the effective appointment of 43 junior judges, 43 junior prosecutors and 57 junior investigators. However, since April 2004, the Council has appointed about 30 judges and prosecutors without a competition, on the basis of an extraordinary procedure in the Law on the Judiciary which allowed for the possibility of appointments without competitions, there being a risk that objective criteria were not applied. In order to remedy this, a decision was taken in April 2005 restricting this practice to cases where no candidate has been found after publication of the vacant post and where a detailed motivated statement for the candidate’s qualities is issued by the chairman of the relevant judiciary body. Nevertheless, the number of appointments made without a full competition under this extraordinary procedure did not drop. According to official figures, there is no major problem with understaffing in the Bulgarian justice system. 1755 posts out of 1800 for judges are filled and 1068 out of 1109 posts for investigators are occupied. Only in the case of prosecutors there are about 10% vacancies (1224 posts of which 1103 are occupied), which in view of the more important role of prosecutors in the penal procedure should be filled as soon as possible. The adoption of a Regulation on appraisal of magistrates in view of promotion or demotion is being delayed. The SJC also continued to exercise its role in the establishment of the budget. It presented the draft budget of the judicial system to the Council of Ministers and controls its implementation. The budget of the judiciary in 2005 is EUR 115 million, which is an increase of 12 % compared with 2004 and amounts to 2.19% of the State budget.

All legal professions now have ethical codes. However, there is little evidence of enforcement of these ethical codes, including by the SJC as far as the ethical codes for the three categories of magistrate are concerned. Bulgaria should enhance the fight against corruption in the judiciary by revising the procedure for lifting immunity, as it is now far too protective towards magistrates accused of unlawful behaviour. This would considerably enhance the accountability of the judiciary and increase the trust of the citizens.

As regards the functioning of the court system, Bulgaria intends to foster specialisation in the judiciary, in particular as far as administrative and commercial law is concerned. However, so far no final decision is taken on the establishment of either commercial departments or on administrative courts. Further specialisation is much needed but will only be successful if the required training is also provided by the National Institute for Justice. With a view to better managing the workload in courts and reducing the sometimes considerable delays in deciding cases, temporary rules are in place on the appraisal of the work performance of judges, public prosecutors and investigators, which include qualitative and quantitative criteria for the evaluation of their activities and workload in accordance with the new provisions of the Law on the Judiciary.

As far as equipment and infrastructure is concerned, the Bulgarian IT Judiciary Strategy was further implemented, resulting among other things in the development of software for monitoring insolvency cases, which was installed in the Ministry of Justice and in all courts in June 2005. However, there have been systematic delays in terms of putting into operation various other types of IT equipment such as the national land register, the Uniform System for Data Collection and Statistics and the Unified Information System for Combating Crime. These delays have negative consequences for the quality of the management of the judiciary, as Bulgaria needs a reliable statistical capacity allowing it to use statistics as management and policy development tools. Also, the Unified System for Court Case Management, which should have allowed for the random distribution of cases as of the end of 2004, is not operational. Even if the software is not yet available, there is an urgent need to adopt objective and clear rules for the manual distribution of cases, as this remains an area which allows for the undue influencing of the work of magistrates.

As regards training, the National Institute for Justice continued to implement training programmes for magistrates in close cooperation with foreign donors and partners and started the initial training courses for junior magistrates in spring 2005. For the first time also training courses for court clerks were organised. While the administrative capacity and infrastructure of the Institute is gradually improving, its budget remains very limited. Financially, the Institute continues to rely heavily on foreign support. Its budget for 2005 is approximately Euro 0.65 million. A modern curriculum for continuous training of magistrates still needs to be established as, so far, continuous training is being organised on an ad hoc basis. There remains a need for various types of training for legal professions outside the magistracy and in particular for lawyers.

Anti-corruption measures

Surveys and assessments conducted by both national and international organisations confirm that widespread corruption remains a cause for concern and affects many aspects of society. There is a positive downward trend as far as administrative corruption is concerned, but the overall enforcement record in the field of corruption remains very weak. The main problem is weak results in the investigation and prosecution of corruption cases. There were no reported cases of completed prosecutions of high-level or political corruption cases, and very few concerned members of the magistracy.

There were few significant legal developments in this area in the reporting period. However, the legal instruments required by the acquis are almost all in place. A new Law on Political Parties was adopted in March 2005, setting out a number of anti-corruption measures to guarantee the transparency and accountability of political party funding, including a complete ban on anonymous donations and better mechanisms for monitoring the activities of political parties. In September 2005, the Law amending the Law on Administrative Violations and Sanctions was adopted dealing with liability of legal persons.

Bulgaria also continued to implement the “Updated Action Plan for the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2004-2005” through the Commission for the Coordination of the Fight against the Corruption. The administrative capacity of this Commission remains weak. The Commission focuses above all on prevention and education measures, such as the development of special programmes for education in anti-corruption practices at the Public Administration and European Integration Institute and in various high schools, and the implementation of specific programmes for prevention in the different ministries and agencies, taking into consideration their specific activities.

In February 2005, the Council of Ministers adopted an amendment supplementing the National Strategy for Combating Corruption of October 2001, which provides for measures to combat high-level corruption. The amendment is aimed exclusively at undertaking measures to prevent corruption in the administration of the executive power at the level of political cabinets and at curbing corruption in other sensitive spheres, such as public procurement. However, deadlines fixed in the National Strategy for Combating Corruption have been largely missed and consequently its impact remained very limited. The Law on making public the property of persons occupying high State positions, which contains provisions for establishing a public register for declaring property, income and expenses of persons occupying high State positions in the Republic of Bulgaria, continued to be implemented. Bulgaria will need to continue vigorously the fight against high-level corruption. Bulgaria’s current anti-corruption policy would greatly benefit from an independent audit. The results of such an audit could feed into the new strategy and focus on better targeting remaining problems.

Bulgaria continued to take a number of administrative measures to strengthen the fight against corruption. The necessary structures within law enforcement agencies and the judiciary have been created, but their results so far vary considerably. The overall organisation and intra-departmental control of the prevention and detection of acts of corruption at the Ministry of the Interior has been further improved by refining the mechanism for receiving, checking and taking action on information concerning corruption amongst Ministry of the Interior officials. Integrity tests are carried out on a regular basis. The training curricula of the Police Academy for the academic year 2004-2005 include issues related to the prevention of internal corruption. In the period October 2004 – March 2005, 38 Ministry of the Interior officials were dismissed on disciplinary grounds. Boxes labelled “Anti-corruption” were placed on the premises of the Ministry of Justice to encourage reporting by staff on suspected cases. A “Customs Intelligence and Investigation” unit was established within the customs administration. In the first nine months of 2005 32 customs officers have been subject to disciplinary sanctions. However, despite these measures, and by comparison with the measures taken in other parts of the public administration, there appears to be little effect in practice. The existing specialised anti-corruption structures in all parts of the administration and the judiciary should be assessed and adapted where necessary to improve efficiency. During 2004, the Public Prosecutor’s Office investigated 6 535 cases, compared with 6 785 in 2003, related to corruption (of which 2 275 were opened during 2004).

Some areas of public administration remain particularly vulnerable to corruption. This is the case for those engaged in public works contracting, including the health sector. There have been several exemptions already from the new law on public procurement which entered into force in October 2004. Claims of non-transparent procedures for procurement and the granting of concessions are continuing.

Bulgaria continues to participate in the monitoring of anti-corruption measures adopted by the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions and in GRECO (the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption).

Trafficking in human beings

Bulgaria remains primarily a country of origin and transit for trafficking in human beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation and is to a lesser extent a country of destination. Mostly women and girls are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Trafficking of men exists on a smaller scale, the men usually ending up as slave workers. In 2005 cases of trafficking of newborns to EU Member States have been reported. The overall situation has not improved, as Bulgarian women are also becoming victims of internal trafficking. They are trafficked to be prostitutes in larger towns, tourist centres and in border post areas where international traffic is high. Furthermore, Roma children are still disproportionately represented among victims of trafficking.
Clear information on trafficked persons and the related number of missing people in Bulgaria is still not available. Bulgaria lacks a system of registering missing persons and victims of trafficking. The Bulgarian police registers as “victims” only those willing to testify, and they are very few. Bulgaria has a witness protection programme. Witness protection measures are not being fully implemented in Bulgaria, and victims of trafficking who cooperate with the police are often only partly protected. An enhanced witness protection programme is essential in the fight against trafficking in human beings. To that effect, implementing rules to the Law on the Protection of Individuals Endangered in relation to Criminal Proceedings have been adopted in September 2005.
The institutional framework to combat human trafficking has been reinforced with the creation of the National Anti-Trafficking Commission, a coordination and policy-making body.

In February 2005, the Government approved a National Programme on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, which envisages measures to implement existing legislation better, to raise awareness, to provide assistance and rehabilitation to victims, and to enhance international cooperation and other complementary measures. A manual on best practices for law enforcement agents having to interact with children victim of sexual exploitation was adopted in January 2005. Furthermore, a Code of Conduct for the prevention of trafficking in children and sexual abuse in tourism was endorsed in May 2005, in close coordination with the tourism industry. However, due to the insufficiency of governmental activities, it is mainly non-governmental organisations which continue to play an important role in prevention programmes and assisting victims of trafficking.

Ill-treatment in custody and prison conditions

There continue to be reports of cases of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, including excessive use of firearms and force by the police. Reports indicate that ill-treatment of persons in custody disproportionately affects Roma. In a number of cases, investigations of complaints of police ill-treatment were not prompt, thorough and impartial.

Concerning prisons, the Bulgarian authorities achieved some positive results in improving penitentiary legislation, mainly related to the implementation of probation as a specific form of sentencing. The establishment of central and local probation services is underway. The population in places of detention has increased slightly. It is encouraging, though, that more inmates are being placed in open and semi-open prison hostels. This would generally provide them with more possibilities for work and for resocialisation. However, the conditions in some Bulgarian prisons and detention centres are still inadequate, mainly because of overpopulation and poor living conditions in the older facilities.

Freedom of expression

The situation in relation to freedom of expression has improved. Freedom of expression is enshrined in the Constitution, and legal provisions are further developed in legislation. Libel is punishable by fines (up to EUR 5 000) under the Criminal Code, and the number of cases brought to court has generally increased. In most cases, however, the courts defined libel and interpreted the law in a manner that favoured journalistic expression.
Regarding audiovisual media, there are no formal restrictions on programming and both television and radio provide a variety of news and public-interest programmes. Bulgarian legislation requires the Council for Electronic Media to issue radio and television programming licences only in accordance with its long-awaited Strategy for Developing Radio and Television Activities. In the absence of such a strategy, the Council could not start new licensing procedures. The Supreme Administrative Court has revoked some of the decisions made by the Council, and this institution needs to ensure its capacity to make transparent, justified and impartial decisions. It needs to reinforce its administrative capacity (see also Chapter 20 – Culture and audiovisual policy).

Child protection

As regards children’s rights, the government has shown its commitment through various strategies, action plans (including a new programme for child protection, adopted in December 2004) and legislation. However, real progress in implementing these remains limited and action should be taken urgently. There have been some improvements related to the method of placing children in institutions, since a large number of children are now placed on the basis of court orders. However, the conditions for children in some State institutions remain poor. Although the legal framework for alternative services to institutional care improved, its promotion is still at an early stage. There is a poor take-up of foster care. Progress in de-institutionalisation remains very limited and falls behind the Bulgarian plan to reduce by 10% the total number of children in specialised institutions in the period 2003-2005.

In the autumn of 2004, the State Agency for Child Protection finalised an assessment of specialised institutions for children. However, despite the critical assessment the conclusions are rather weak and have not been followed up by firm closure plans with systematic parallel development of professionally staffed alternative services. A comprehensive monitoring system should ensure that efforts to support children living in community care are successful in the long term. Resources currently blocked in the institutional system should be available to provide community-based services in the best interests of the child. Many of the children in institutions are not orphans, and little has been done to support re-integration with parents. In spite of existing legislation aiming at enhanced access for all children to mainstream education, access for children in institutional care to mainstream schools remains unsatisfactory, and the share of these children in special schools is a matter of concern. Unlocking the financial and human resources currently supporting the special schools system would help speed up reforms in this area. In view of the still complex institutional set-up for child protection, the competences of the State Agency for Child Protection remain limited and its coordinating function needs to be enhanced. There is a further need to increase the capacity of relevant local structures, particularly child protection departments. Inconsistent policies on integration of minority groups create further obstacles to sound implementation of children’s rights.

It appears that changes in adoption legislation and practices have had an impact on the number of children being adopted internationally. However, it is too early to judge if the decrease in international adoptions is a long-term trend. It has proved difficult to obtain reliable statistics on this question. Further efforts are necessary to increase transparency regarding adoptions and to ensure that the best interests of the child are the primary consideration when making decisions relating to inter-country adoption, and to eliminate all possibilities for improper financial gain. Bearing in mind the risk of abuse, it should be ensured that foreign entities are not involved in the identification of children for inter-country adoption.

The disabled and mental healthcare system

A new law on integration of people with disabilities aims at social inclusion of people with disabilities and provides for the shift from a narrow medical model to a social care model. In that context, the establishment of an Agency for People with Disabilities is an encouraging step.
The mental healthcare system is still poorly coordinated between three ministries (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Ministry of Education), and enhanced efforts are necessary to devise and implement a consistent policy for people with mental disabilities. State financial support for social care homes increased slightly and some measures were taken to improve the material conditions of such institutions. However, living conditions in a number of social care homes continue to be extremely poor, with little improvement in the provision of medical (including psychiatric) care and other therapies and scant regard for the need for privacy and respect for the individual. There is still a lack of an independent review of placement decisions and effective legal safeguards (e.g. against abuse) for the people concerned. In a number of cases, people with different needs are placed in the same institution. Efforts to develop community-based services and to reintegrate are still at a very early stage (see also Chapter 13 Social Policy and Employment). Despite an existing government decree that gave all children the right to attend mainstream schools, segregation of children with disabilities into special schools continues to lower the quality of their education. In 2005, following an evaluation of social care homes undertaken by the Agency for Social Assistance together with the Ministry of Health, recommendations for reforming institutions and individual care plans for people with mental and physical disabilities were drawn up.

The new Law on Public Health which entered into force in January 2005 requires that placement and treatment in psychiatric dispensaries in principle be carried out on the basis of a court order and be in line with the requirements of the European Court of Human Rights ruling in the Varbanov v. Bulgaria case.
Protection and integration of minorities

The effective and sustainable integration of Roma remains an issue of major concern. The efforts made by Bulgaria to implement the “Framework Programme for Equal Integration of Roma into Bulgarian Society” lack sufficient strategic approach, coordination and finance. This Framework Programme is still in its early stages, and related documents and action plans adopted by the government remain largely on paper.

Key reforms in combating discrimination in education, healthcare and housing are still outstanding. A long-term action plan in line with the “Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015” (launched in Sofia in February 2005) has been drawn up and contains objectives in the areas of education, healthcare, housing, culture and discrimination. Bulgaria needs to to ensure that this action plan is properly resourced and implemented.

A number of cases were filed under the Protection against Discrimination Act, and in three cases the Sofia Electricity Supply Company was found guilty of treating Roma customers unfavourably in relation to non-Roma customers. An independent Commission for Protection against Discrimination, as envisaged by the law, was established in 2005 (see also Chapter 13 Social Policy and Employment).

The strategic documents and programmes on the educational integration of children from the Roma minority have not significantly changed the situation on the ground. Initiatives aimed at attracting and keeping Roma children in school (e.g. free lunches, subsidised textbooks, teacher assistants in schools with Roma students, bussing programmes) were largely unsuccessful. Although an Agency for Educational Integration of Children and Pupils from Ethnic Minorities has been established, this body has not succeeded so far in fulfilling its main function, namely the coordination of efforts made by different ministries to enhance the educational integration of children from minorities. As already outlined in the 2004 Report, a number of Roma children of mainstream mental ability still continue to be placed in special schools following poorly controlled assessments.

Many Roma continue to be excluded from access to healthcare services. A Health Strategy for Disadvantaged Members of Ethnic Minorities and an associated action plan were adopted in September 2005. The elaboration of this strategy and action plan forms an important part of the Framework Programme for Equal Integration of Roma into Bulgarian Society. Although several initiatives are ongoing with international donor support, a long-awaited National Housing Strategy for Roma has not yet been adopted.

A number of national employment programmes aimed inter alia at addressing long-term unemployment amongst Roma have continued. However, in order to increase their effectiveness, these initiatives need to be further combined with complementary measures such as family counselling and professional assistance in searching for a job.

In spite of the establishment of a new National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Demographic Issues, the administrative capacity of the State structure dealing with minority issues continues to be weak. The body is not yet fully operational, and it remains to be seen whether the chosen structure will provide for the powers necessary for effective minority rights protection, including enhanced political influence and staffing. In particular, attention should be paid to ensuring sufficient consultation with Roma representatives with a view to developing and implementing the State policy on the integration of Roma.
The Bulgarian authorities should demonstrate, at all levels, that the country applies a zero-tolerance policy on racism against Roma or against any other minority or group and that this policy is effectively implemented.

3. General evaluation

Bulgaria, as in previous years, continues to fulfil the political criteria for membership. Overall, it has reached a satisfactory level of compliance with EU requirements. Nevertheless, further action is needed in a number of important areas which were highlighted in the 2004 Report as requiring further efforts.

As regards public administration reform, Bulgaria still needs to complete the legislative framework guaranteeing the principles of legality, accountability, reliability and predictability in the workings of the public administration. Also, further efforts are needed to strengthen local and regional administration in the context of decentralisation. The White Paper on the Modernisation of the Administration adopted by the Government in April 2004 now needs to be put into practice.

Important legislative steps have been taken in relation to the judiciary. However, progress in the reform of the pre-trial phase remains limited and the justice system continues to suffer from a lack of accountability. The procedures for administering justice remain cumbersome and slow.

The main problem in combating corruption effectively remains the weak results in the investigation and prosecution of high-level corruption cases. While efforts to combat corruption have had a certain impact, notably in relation to petty corruption, generally the perception remains that corruption continues to be a cause for concern.

In the area of human rights and the protection of minorities, more effort needs to be made to combat efficiently the trafficking of human beings and to improve conditions in a number of state institutions for children and people with disabilities. Further progress is needed in the process of de-institutionalisation and in improving the management of the mental health care system. Sustained efforts are required to realise the effective integration of the Roma minority. The Framework Programme for Equal Integration of Roma into the Bulgarian Society should be implemented as planned.