Bulgaria passes amendments crucial to EU entry

SOFIA, Mar 30 (Reuters) Bulgaria's parliament approved constitutional amendments today to improve its inefficient and graft-prone judiciary and meet a key requirement for its plans to join the European Union next year.

Opposition deputies joined the three-party Socialist-led coalition to give them 184 of parliament's 240 seats and achieve the three-fourths majority required.

The changes aim to raise accountability in the lumbering courts and prosecution, who western diplomats blame for a ''climate of impunity'' in which high-level corruption and organised crime flourish.

Brussels has urged Sofia to prove it can solve the problem and improve rule of law or it will recommend in a May 16 report that EU members delay accession until 2008.

''These changes are a strong signal to Europe ... a result of our efforts towards a more effective judiciary,'' Mikhail Mikov, the head of the parliamentary club of the ruling Socialists after the vote.

''If they had not been passed today, they would not have been included in the EU's progress report.'' Bulgaria, a Black Sea country of 7.8 million people, once led its northern neighbour Romania in EU reforms, but it stumbled last year when messy summer elections and a protracted political standoff stalled its drive for reforms.

Bucharest has since stormed ahead in efforts to wipe out rampant graft, with prosecutors laying charges against top officials including former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase.

But, plagued by a bloody gang war between powerful criminal gangs who diplomats say control major parts of the economy, Bulgaria has failed show similar results.

In particular, it has failed to convict a single person for any of the shootings, bombings and other underworld hits that have killed around 150 since 2001 or charge a single top level official for graft.

Among other aims, the seven amendments reduce immunity enjoyed by deputies and allow parliament to sack the chief prosecutor and heads of the civil and supreme courts.

Currently immune to prosecution and subject to dismissal only by their peers, these officials have born the brunt of criticism for allowing criminal and graft cases to slide.

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