“Bulgaria does at least as well as Romania with it’s reforms in the law system. Sofia is painted in a rather negative light, however, to discourage the further enlargement of the European Union”, says Andreas Giger, partner in the Brussels-based company “Alber & Giger” in an interview with “Euractive”.

Andreas Giger, lobbyist for the Bulgarian government, declares that Bulgaria has a serious communication problem with the European commission, which is perfectly illustrated by the Sofia – Brussels correspondence that his company has access to.

“Many of the problems that culminated with the negative report of the European commission (on July 23rd) are the result of misunderstanding; the European commission thinks that Bulgarian officials don’t want to do what is expected of them, and the Bulgarian population thinks that the EC treats them unjustly”, maintains Giger.

He thinks that the current situation in Bulgaria, nearly two years after joining the European Union, isn’t worse than the same period in Poland after they joined the EU in 2004. According to him, the EU just wants to make clear that a further enlargement of the Union is not wanted soon and uses Bulgaria as a “bogeyman”.