The level of corruption in Bulgaria in 2013-2014 has reached a new high for the past 15 years. This is what the results of the 11th report of the Center for the Study of Democracy show. It was prepared by the Southeast European Leadership for Development and Integrity /SELDI/ and for the first time covers nine Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. Bulgaria comes third in the bribe chart /29%/ after Montenegro /31%/ and Albania /39%/. The level of corruption in Turkey and Croatia is the lowest (8-9%). But even these low levels are far above the EU average, which means that giving bribes is a mass phenomenon in the Balkans. In 2014, however, with the collapse of the Corporate Commercial Bank, Bulgarians witnessed alarming manifestations of high-level political corruption, existing even in the most powerful law enforcement structures: Prosecution, Financial Intelligence, and the Bulgarian National Bank. More on the topic from Ruslan Stefanov of the Center for the Study of Democracy.

"Results show that the political turmoil in the past 2 years has resulted in solid growth of administrative corruption. Currently corruption in Bulgaria is at its highest level since the monitoring system was introduced in 1999 – a total of 160,000 bribes are given monthly. This means that systems aimed at combating corruption are not functioning and that high level political corruption exists. If we look at the situation in Southeast Europe for the period 2000-2014, Bulgaria’s position is also not good. Bulgaria is at the level of the Western Balkan countries that are not members of the EU. Corruption in Bulgaria is more widely spread than that of Croatia, which is the newest EU Member State. Positive news is the fact that Bulgaria has much more transparent system of financial management and budget planning. The attitude of Bulgarians towards corruption is very negative in comparison to that of citizens of Western Balkan countries. So, when it comes to labeling corruption as social evil Bulgaria shows more common characteristics with the EU countries. This creates an explosive social-political situation.”

The fact that Romania shows a momentary success in fighting corruption does not place Bulgaria behind

According to Mr. Stefanov these are normal political cycles. "Earlier the situation in Bulgaria was better but the depth of the issues in both countries is similar. Quite a few countries in Central Europe - Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland are also not immune to the problems. The difference between Bulgaria and Romania is that no high-level politician in Bulgaria has been found guilty of any crime. But the model of independent investigation of corruption is obviously working in Romania, Croatia and Slovenia. Bulgaria could also make this step and the EC’s pressure on this country will continue to grow.

“The increased transparency in Bulgaria has provided a much clearer picture of what was happening in the case with Corporate Commercial Bank and the South Stream project. Bulgarians had a lot of information, despite attempts of silencing in controlled media. Some 10 years ago Bulgarian would have never learned what was actually going on.”

According to Ruslan Stefanov corruption and political instability are linked in a complex relationship. Moreover corruption in Bulgaria was a resistant issue even before the democratic changes in Bulgaria in 1989. The democratic nature of the party system, however, gives hope for change. The reason the decline in corruption has been unstable is again political instability, Mr. Stefanov adds.

He expects that the Report of the European Commission next month on the progress of Bulgaria in the sphere of justice would focus on the lack of real progress in fighting corruption. But it would also give the new government of Boyko Borisov the opportunity to provide solutions. The EC report will be also related to the overall EU anticorruption report on all Member States.

"Combating grave corruption issues has always been the responsibility of local forces. This awareness is important because corruption affects mostly the people who live and work in Bulgaria.”

English: Alexander Markov