Yes, Little L, i absolutely agree: the state has been doing little to punish the mafia and we need to do things gradually. I just disagree Bulgarians have a weird interpretation of freedom: i'd call it an immature interpretation. The reason is that we haven't had a lot of democracy, we haven't had enough time to establish our institutions and we still tend to have more respect for personalities, not for traditions. We just need time.

Another reason why a delay would be good is the perception of the Bulgarian public. Most common people seem to be saying, the EU will be bad for us - now we're making ends meet, what will we do when we join the union? Nobody seems to be responding to this in human language, to the point. The more chagrined the public is, the harder it'll be for our politicians to sell their policies.