Sofia - Bulgaria needs to crack down "forcefully and very toughly" on suspected cases of abuse in Sunday's elections for the European Parliament, an EU commissioner said Wednesday.

The 17 Bulgarian representatives should be "fairly elected," the commissioner for consumer protection, Meglena Kuneva, was quoted as saying in her homeland.

Kuneva, heading the ticket put forward by the conservative National Movement of former King Simeon II, was referring to reported cases of parties trying to buy votes from poor voters.

"This affects ... Europe's confidence in Bulgarian elections," she said. Bulgaria, along with Romania, joined the EU in 2007, but remains plagued by corruption.

Blatant embezzlement of EU funds spurred Brussels into suspending more than 500 million euros (710 million dollars) in assistance to Bulgaria, scrapping 200 million euros altogether.(dpa)