Alarming trends of state and businesses captures, partisanship, persistent conflicts of interest, nepotism etc. are often related to the susceptability of Southern cultures to corruptive behavior. Networked crime in many cases per ­forms as“part-time” client of political and quasi-corporative patronages that have mushroomed in the years of transition on the Balkans. Informal relations as means of societal and political influence must be taken into consideration, when confronting corruptive behaviour in its complexity. Pa ­trons and patronages allocate not only material resources. They often operate successfully with sympathy, loyalty, power and/or obedience, knowledge and trust. Their interference with formal structures of societies has always influenced decision-making, institutional functions, or even“higher” politics. Corruption and crime may look like the only lucrative“business” to flour ­ish in an insecure environment. Organised crime is getting more sophisticated much faster than authorities can develop their abilities to counteract. This pos ­es a fresh challenge to Bulgaria’s police and courts, which the EU has fiercely criticised for inefficiency and corruption. As corruptive patronage and their networks of“insiders” control signifi ­cant sectors of the societies, or are interwoven with“high level” politics, a new institutional architecture, designed and managed through mutually re ­sponsible EU and national policies, based on European standards, are the only reliable long-term strategy of positive change. June 2009