Kristian Vigenin held talks with the leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament and with Commissioners Füle and Georgieva
02 October 2013 News
During his working visit to Brussels, Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin met with the chairmen of the parliamentary groups of the European People's Party, the Socialists and Democrats, and the Greens, as well as with the EU Commissioners Štefan Füle and Kristalina Georgieva.
The Chairmen of the Groups in the European Parliament Joseph Daul, Hannes Swoboda and Rebecca Harms declared their support for Bulgaria in dealing with the increasing number of Syrian refugees. "Bulgaria is under unprecedented refugee pressure. The government is making every effort to address this problem, but the Bulgarian authorities need solidarity and support from the European partners," Minister Vigenin said. EPP leader Joseph Daul suggested to Bulgaria to investigate the Italian experience of dealing with similar problems. He also expressed the anticipation of the EU for Bulgaria to continue and to deepen the reforms in the field of justice and home affairs.
The leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, Hannes Swoboda, expressed support for the efforts of the Bulgarian Foreign Minister to increase the levels of cooperation with the Eastern Partnership countries, positively assessed also by the Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle . Swoboda reaffirmed the support of the European Socialists for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area. "Bulgaria expects to be evaluated on the progress in meeting the Schengen membership criteria without the decision being influenced by other topics, not directly related to the fulfillment of the conditions," Bulgarian Foreign Minister said.
Vigenin also held meeting with the European Parliament rapporteur on the Asylum and Migration Fund, Sylvie Guillaume. During the conversation, the question of the allocation of funds provided for Bulgaria for the period 2014-2020 was raised. Vigenin emphasized that the calculations do not take into account the trends of recent months and said that Bulgaria will notify the European Commission on this issue.
During the meeting with Commissioner Füle, the two discussed the initiative for cooperation in a multilateral format between the EC and the countries of the Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, which Füle described as an opportunity to speed up the reforms in the region. The conversation covered also the various aspects of the upcoming publication of the European Commission's annual progress reports on enlargement policy, due on October 16. Minister Vigenin briefed on the pace of the negotiations between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia on the good neighbourly relations and co-operation treaty between the two countries.
The basic steps that the Bulgarian government could take to obtain European support for dealing with the refugee flow to Bulgaria were outlined during the meeting of Minister Vigenin and the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva. An emphasis was put on the need to use the funds that Bulgaria receives under number of programs for protecting its borders, managing migration, integration fund, etc. The possibility of reallocating resources from the funds that Bulgaria currently does not utilize efficiently, was also discussed.
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