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Kiril Petkov PHOTO: Velislav Nikolov
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Bulgaria’s new prime minister, Kiril Petkov, has signaled that Sofia will stop obstructing northern Macedonia’s bid to join the European Union. In an interview with the Financial Times before parliament approved his candidacy on Monday, he reaffirmed Bulgaria’s commitment to NATO and the West. “We are 100% on the right side of NATO and EU policies,” he told the paper.
“We will propose a new process [по Северна Македония]”Very fast, with a limited time frame of only six months,” he said.
The reversal comes after Bulgaria vetoed Northern Macedonia’s EU membership talks last year over disputes over history and identity, the paper said. Critics then accused former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov of resorting to nationalism to divert attention from months of protests against organized crime and corruption under his rule. “Investor”.
The immediate challenge for the new government will be to fight the country’s coronavirus crisis. Bulgaria is among the countries with the highest mortality rates and the lowest vaccination rates in the world.
“We definitely need to increase vaccinations,” Petkov said. “We will set aside enough budget to promote. I will invite experts, we will go to the hospitals and we will show the situation. This is as much a health program as it is an economic program. We cannot close Bulgaria again. “
The new prime minister will also face a complex foreign policy balance at a time when Russia is playing an increasingly urgent role in the region.
Petkov told the FT that the new government would lay the groundwork for discussions with northern Macedonia. “We will use working groups … to make solutions such as joint economic activity, infrastructure, culture and history,” he said.
However, Petkov faces a challenge in formulating his government’s policy towards the neighboring country, FT commented. The leader of the coalition party “There is such a people” Slavi Trifonov has built an image rooted in romantic nationalism – which in Bulgaria includes the claim that Northern Macedonia is ethnically and culturally Bulgarian. In addition, the country’s new foreign and energy ministers are from the ITN.
The ITN has been a constructive partner in coalition talks, and the areas of concern discussed in recent months will remain on the table, Petkov said.
“For example, in Macedonian textbooks Bulgaria should not be called fascist,” he said, alluding to Macedonian descriptions of Bulgarian troops occupying – or liberating and governing – Bulgaria’s position – what is now Northern Macedonia in the 1940s. .
Sofia will also have to step carefully at a time of growing tensions in the Black Sea region, where Russia is increasingly demonstrating its strength since the annexation of Crimea by Ukraine in 2014.
Bulgaria wants to end its dependence on Russian energy, Petkov said. The country receives almost all of its gas from Russia, and a pipeline through Greece to Bulgaria, which can deliver alternative supplies, has been under construction for more than a decade, the paper said.
Petkov notes that Sofia has already signed contracts for the supply of Azeri gas through the Greek route and is committed to completing the Bulgarian part of the pipeline as soon as possible.
The new prime minister also says his foreign policy will focus on preventing armed conflict “anywhere in the neighborhood”, but that his country remains committed to the West.
President Rumen Radev’s comment during a pre-election debate in November, when he caused concern among international allies, saying “Crimea is currently Russian” did not signal a change in Bulgaria’s position, Petkov said. The president just wanted to draw attention to the reality on the ground, he said.
“We treat Crimea as part of Ukraine, there is no doubt at the moment,” Petkov insisted. “But we want to make sure we use all diplomatic means to avoid military conflict.”
“We are looking for an active and committed role for Bulgaria in both the EU and NATO,” he added. “We don’t want to be the last kid in the classroom anymore.”
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