Britain and France have joined forces to demand that Brussels gets tough on -Bulgaria and Romania over "serious" corruption, amid claims that the European Union's two newest members are being let off the hook.
Sweden and the Netherlands also voiced fears that the European Commission is not taking seriously its promise to maintain pressure on the two states to complete promised legal reforms, undermining the credibility of the EU's enlargement process.
The formal complaint, made at a private meeting this month, saw member states allege that Franco Frattini, the EU justice commissioner, had grown too close to the two countries he is monitoring. Mr Frattini's decision to go skiing in February with Rumen Petkov, Bulgaria's interior minister, caused consternation in some national capitals and among some colleagues in Brussels.
The Italian commissioner's spokesman said the skiing took place during a working weekend in the Bulgarian mountains and he refuted "in the strongest possible terms" any suggestions of a conflict of interest.
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