Bulgarian NGOs announce start of campaign for clean European parliament

NGOs are starting a publicity campaign for what they call "clean European parliament (EP)" to prevent entry in the EP of Bulgarian MEPs who are corrupt, have worked with the communist-era secury service or gotten rich in suspicious ways. The start of the campaign was announced Monday by social scientist Vassil Kurdinov.

Bulgaria will send 18 members to the European Parliament after direct voting this spring.

A similar campaign was held in Romania in 2004, when NGOs formed an alliance called "Coalition for a Clean Parliament".

In Bulgaria, all candidates for the EP will be checked for compliance with six criteria: whether they have been employeed or have cooperated with the communist security service; have been accused of corruption and abuse of power; have been involved in a conflict of interest in respect of a public office they have held; whether they own or are partners in a business with outstanding obligations to the public purse; whether they have changed political allegeances often over personal gains.

Kudrinov explained that the candidates will be checked for eligibility openly and the information will be collected from public sources. Press stories on them will be monitored as well.

Where a candidate does not meet any of the criteria, the party leadership will be urged to stike him or her off their list of candidates. Or else voters will be urged not to vote for the said candidate.

To ensure an informed choice by Bulgarians, nearly one million leaflets will be handed out ahead of the elections for MEPs as part of this campaign.

Among the NGOs involved in the campaign are the European Institute, the Assistance Centre for Torture Survivors, Media wity Human face and George Marshall - Bulgaria.

BTA