site.btaEC Vice-President Timmermans Comments CVM Mechanism in Respect of Bulgaria

EC Vice-President Timmermans Comments CVM Mechanism in Respect of Bulgaria

Brussels, December 21 (BTA corr. Nikolay Jeliazkov) - European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said, taking a question during a news conference Wednesday, that it is not in the interest of the process of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism "to formulate a mandate of that process". The EC Vice President said that he met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov last week. "We discussed many many issues, including the CVM but I never give any indications, that's what I always tell to all my interlocutors from both Romania and Bulgaria - it is not in the interest of the process to formulate a mandate of that process," Timmermans said.

"The only working hypothesis we have is the indication given by [EC] President Juncker last year or the beginning of our mandate that he hoped that we would be able to terminate the CVM by the end of this Commission's mandate [2019]. That could be at any time in those five years, that's the only indication I want to give," Timmermans said.

He said that based on the extensive experience in this area in different capacities, "if you formulate a deadline then it becomes a deadline which then disregards the facts on the ground. I think that it is much better for the developments in Bulgaria in this specific case if we just keep our eye on the ball". Timmermans stressed that "under the leadership of PM Borissov quite some advances were made, especially in the area of tax avoidance. He's had some remarkable results, I think a total of two billion euro extra tax revenue over the last two years, so I really complimented him for that effort. "But again I never ever give a deadline on the CVM," the EC Vice President said.