Bulgaria Urged Not to Delay Over Reforms

Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said reforms in Bulgaria were needed in the felds of electronic government, healthcare, education and most of all the judiciary.

'EU surveys show that "96 per cent of Bulgarians do not trust completely their judiciary", she noted. ''Seeing this, I asked myself who are the other 4 per cent? They must be judges."

Georgieva was speaking at a conference in the European Parliament under the slogan "My Dream of Bulgaria", Bulgarian National Radio reported, initiated by an MEP from the ruling centre-right GERB party, Eva Paunova.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov, who also took part in the discussion - addressing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's call for a European army - said that any future European armed force would have to "complement NATO, instead of creating unnecessary buzz in the system".

''As of now we are not able to provide sufficient resources in meet our committments to NATO," he added.

"The creation of a European army will require will for more resources in the defence system," he continued.