Bulgaria's poor record in fighting organised crime and corruption has been exposed to the world, bringing anger and shame to Sofia.

In a report leaked last week, the European Commission lambasted Bulgaria in some of the toughest language used about a member, saying that "high-level corruption and organised crime" exacerbated "problems of general weakness in administrative and judicial capacity". In a separate leaked document, Olaf, the Commission's anti-fraud unit, accused a suspected criminal-business group of defrauding the European Union of pre-accession funds, and accused authorities of failing to handle the case properly.