site.btaPresident Believes that European Integration Means European Standards of Fighting Corruption

Sofia, June 5 (BTA) - Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is convinced that European integration means European standards of fighting corruption. "It means pooling the efforts of all institutions and engaging the whole society to deal with the problem," Radev said in Sofia on Tuesday. He was speaking at an international conference on "European Practices and Capacities to Combat Corruption."

According to the President, each country develops its own counter-corruption model but if it wants to be fully integrated into Europe, it should rise above its homegrown methods and apply good European practices. "The results of the fight against corruption show how well we have been integrated," he said.

He called for comprehensive measures against corruption, including large-scale legislative initiatives aimed at uncovering, disrupting and investigating corruption schemes, relentlessly prosecuting the culprits and preventing further cases of corruption.

Radev said: "Corruption in Bulgaria is much talked about but I think that too little is done about it." He noted that "corruption never rests: when left without public attention and without systematic measures to suppress it, it grows like a tumor."

Corruption is immensely damaging to society because it implies the use of major government leverage to serve private interests; it limits fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens, generates poverty and crime, erodes public confidence in the government and alienates investors, he said.

"In the case of Bulgaria, corruption also has another specific negative effect," Radev said. "It is a big obstacle to the attainment of Bulgaria's strategic goals, such as the development of a modern competitive economy and the full integration into European structures. When business people focus their efforts not on promoting innovation and competitiveness but on looking for the right person in the public administration who can secure a government contract for them in exchange for certain financial gains, this is killing our economy."

Radev noted that seeing so many politicians, NGO representatives and public figures at the conference means that, after all, corruption is not met with indifference and resignation.

The conference discussed counter-corruption practices in various European countries, compared various models and looked at the interaction between counter-corruption authorities and prosecution services. The event was attended by European experts and representatives of Bulgarian institutions.