Sensible Move

BULGARIA MAY PROMPT EU ANTI-CORRUPTION BOARD - GERMAN MP

Bulgaria, Greece and Romania may prompt the EU to enforce a long-term reform program aimed at dealing with corruption and dubious political practices, according to Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, a German MEP.

Chatzimarkakis, a German liberal MEP of Greek descent, told EurActiv that the European Commission considers a plan to directly manage regional funds in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania as the countries' administrations are currently incapable of doing so themselves.

"The question of absorption of EU money is a big issue for the commissioner responsible for cohesion funds. And he sees three countries that are not able to absorb EU funding in an appropriate manner. This affects in a special manner Bulgaria and Romania, but also Greece, which has fallen even behind Bulgaria and Romania," the German MEP stated.

However, the MEP does not believe implementing the measure would be an easy task.

"All the respective countries have the problem of being very proud, saying 'this cuts our sovereignty', although this is just not the case, of course. Those are just programmes that will still be presented by the member states, not by civil servants," he said.

Uncles View: If you cannot rely upon your own people to run EU money then having the EU run it itself is eminently sensible.