Ex-European Commission vice-president Gunter Verheugen declared that in spite of their negative image, Romania and Bulgaria are not the most corrupt EU states, Novinite reads. Verheugen made the statements for German TV channel Phoenix TV.

"I consider it unfair to accuse these countries of being corrupt, of not having functional administration and that they are being led by organised crime", Vehreugen declared. "If you ask me which the most corrupt EU state is, Romania and Bulgaria will not be the first states to be mentioned, not the first to come to my mind. Also, I would not think of Romania and Bulgaria if you ask me in which EU country organised crime has the greatest influence on governmental policies", Verheugen added.

Nonetheless, the European official refused to name the EU member which he believed to be the most corrupt. "I let you decide what countries I am thinking of. One of them is very easy to discover", Verheugen added.

The European Commission's Report regarding the collaboration and control mechanisms from the internal and economic affairs in Romania and Bulgaria will be published in February. The date is not yet certain, but it will definitely be after February 9, when the Commission led by Jose Manuel Barroso will be invested, the quoted sources claimed. This will be the EC first report evaluating the measures taken by the Bulgarian centre-right government that won the elections in July and tried to lose the country brand flawed by corruption and organised crime.

Romania and Bulgaria are not yet making sufficient effort to fight against corruption and organised crime. Therefore, the states have no other option but to accept EU's monitoring for at least one more year, the most recent report of the European Executive shows. The report was published in July 22, 2009. Ex-European Commission vice-president