Ekaterina Zaharieva: Stop the disinformation campaigns from the Western Balkans against EU states
10 May 2021 News
“Starting EU accession negotiations taken alone is not enough to consolidate the geopolitical orientation of the Western Balkans. It is necessary the countries from the region to comply with the EU criteria and to implement effectively the required reforms including to stop funding disinformation campaigns against member states,” said Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva during today’s meeting of the “Foreign Affairs” Council in Brussels between the foreign ministers.
“I agree that we have to hold discussions regarding the Western Balkans more often,” added the Bulgaria’s Top Diplomat. “Unfortunately, however, the discussions which we held four years ago, when Bulgaria was President of the Council of the EU and insisted on a greater commitment with the countries in the region, were the same as today’s. Then our neighbours again blamed other countries as they wished to find an excuse for the insufficient implementation of the reforms. The lack of complete alignment of the countries of the Western Balkans to EU decisions and positions in the sphere of the foreign policy and the security policy is also disturbing.”
Ekaterina Zaharieva emphasized that Bulgaria was among the most active and consistent supporters of the process of enlargement with countries from the Western Balkans and that it would continue to support it. “We are confident that the accession of these countries will increase the strategic autonomy of the EU, but only if they respect the fundamental values of the Union,” she added.
The Council made a comprehensive inspection of the situation on the Western Balkans, and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, signs of political destabilization, complication of the socio-economic situation, slowdown of the reforms rate, aggravation of the nationalist rhetoric, increase of the influence of third countries which do not share the EU values were found.
The ministers examined the transatlantic relations following the acceptance of the Joint Communication and the Conclusions of the Council on the topic in December 2020. They welcomed the decisive actions of the new administration of the USA to return to multilateralism and restore the traditional partnerships with a focus on the relations with the EU. They demanded specific joint actions to be defined to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences, as well as to address a wide range of foreign policy issues during the preparations for the EU-US Summit on 15 June 2021.
The foreign ministers of the member states held a video conference discussion with the US Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry. The EU and the US reaffirmed their leading role in the global efforts to combat climate changes and agreed on joint diplomatic initiatives to promote greater commitment on behalf of third countries to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The cooperation for the purpose of ensuring the success of the Conference of the states which are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in November 2021 in Glasgow was identified as an immediate priority.
The Member States declared their solidarity with Bulgaria and the Czech Republic in connection with the activities on their territory by Russian representatives which were incompatible with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and supported the undertaken response measures.
The Council made a brief overview of the situation in Belarus, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Sahel, the course of the discussions on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program, the postponed elections in Palestine, the forthcoming G20 Summit on Global Health on 21 May 2021.
At the end of today’s meeting the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva thanked her colleagues for their joint work over the past 4 years. “Thank you for your strong friendship and solidarity which I have always received at this round table,” the Bulgarian Foreign Minister said.
More photos
