WRITTEN QUESTION E-1152/03

by Joke Swiebel (PSE) to the Council

(1 April 2003)

Subject: Extortion against holidaymakers travelling through Bulgaria

In recent years, Netherlands residents have very regularly been the victims of extortion and other fraudulent practices by government officials while in transit through Bulgaria on the way to Turkey during the summer holidays. Sums of money are taken from them in various ways, including in the guise of tolls or fines, or for visas at the border. A file containing accounts confirming the existence of such practices, compiled by the Netherlands Foundation entitled Participation Body for Turks in the Netherlands, will be forwarded to you.

I believe that the Council is sufficiently aware of this problem, since the Spanish Presidency brought it to the attention of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry in May 2002. I also gather that EU countries' consuls in Bulgaria are holding or have held consultations to raise this problem with the Bulgarian authorities.

In a few months it will be the summer holidays again and many people will be wanting to travel to Turkey via Bulgaria and the Balkans. Can the Council state what the outcome has been of the above-mentioned consultations? What measures has the Council taken since then to bring the problem of extortion against holiday-makers in Bulgaria to the attention of the relevant Bulgarian authorities? What solution has been found to prevent yet more holidaymakers being the victim of such practices in future? What channels are offered by the embassies and consulates of the EU countries in Bulgaria for hearing complaints and referring people who have been cheated in this way to the Bulgarian courts where they may be able to enter a claim for the money they have lost?

Reply

(29 September 2003)

The Council shares the Honourable Member's concern about the security of holidaymakers in Bulgaria. The unfortunate incidents of recent years have given additional impetus to the pressure already being exerted by the European Union in the course of its contacts with Bulgaria.

Although the Council cannot itself conduct inquiries into individual cases, it does indirectly play a role by monitoring the degree of candidate countries' alignment on the JHA acquis, including as regards absence of the rule of law. The Council has been informed that the Bulgarian authorities have to date adopted a number of anti-corruption measures the implementation of which is being monitored by both the Council and the Commission and will continue to be so monitored until the date of accession(1). Progress in this respect was also acknowledged in the Commission's 2002 regular report on Bulgaria's progress towards accession.

In the framework of the Europe Agreement with Bulgaria, the negotiations on enlargement, and the Accession Partnership with Bulgaria, the Commission and the Member States have repeatedly urged Bulgaria to take the necessary measures to prevent incidents such as those referred to by the Honourable Member. The recently presented proposal for a Council decision on the principles, priorities, intermediate objectives and conditions contained in the Accession Partnership with Bulgaria(2) for example, urges authorities to enhance combating corruption in law enforcement bodies by () developing a corrupt practices prevention programme as well as a code of ethics for officials in the Ministry of the Interior, in particular traffic and border police ().

The Union will continue to monitor developments in this field, notably in the framework of the bodies created by the Europe Agreement (Association Council, Association Committee and Sub-Committees).

Finally, it is of interest in this respect to recall that within the 2002 PHARE programme, one of the four anti-corruption projects approved deals specifically with corruption within police forces.

(1) The Inspectorate has set up a Division within the Ministry of the Interior to deal specifically with corruption. A separate section of the NSCOC investigates possible corruption-based connections between members of public and local administrations and organised crime groups. The National Police Service has developed a Counter Economic Crime Programme 2000-2006, which envisages measures against corruption-related crime. The Border police has launched several measures to combat corruption: there is an anonymous hot line telephone number, a mailbox for passengers wishing to make a complaint about the border police and there is a specialised unit responsible for the prevention and detection of corrupt practices.

(2) COM(2003) 142 final of 26 March 2003.