Bulgaria and Hungary will seek a new dynamics in their bilateral commercial and economic cooperation and in the implementation of the projects which strengthen the energy security of the European countries. This is what Presidents Rosen Plevneliev and Janos Ader said after their meeting held at the Sandor Palace in Budapest. The talks between the two heads of state marked the beginning of the Bulgarian President’s official visit to Hungary. At a joint news conference, Presidents Plevneliev and Ader emphasized that diversifying the energy supplies and the transit routes of energy resources is a priority for both Bulgaria and Hungary.
The implementation of the project for connecting the power supply networks of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia should later be extended to include the energy systems of Bulgaria and Romania, the Bulgarian head of state said. According to Rosen Plevneliev, Bulgaria should speed up the process of adopting the rules of the Third EU Liberalization Energy Package, which will provide more effective consumer protection and will make Bulgaria less dependent on external factors. “Bulgaria is now preparing legislative amendments and I do hope that the amendments will be promptly approved by the next Parliament so that public expectations be met,” President Plevneliev noted.
Hungarian companies have invested more than one billion euros in Bulgaria in the past ten years, and, in President Janos Ader’s words, there are favorable conditions that make it possible to maintain and reinforce this positive trend. Despite the negative impact of the world financial and economic crisis, bilateral trade has achieved a considerable growth and “little efforts are required so that it exceeds one billion euros per year,” Janos Ader forecast.
Among the topics debated by the two presidents were also the two countries’ positions on the EU 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, reasserting the potential of the Cohesion policy as a factor securing growth in the underdeveloped regions and the measures to fight youth unemployment.
President Rosen Plevneliev told journalists that the regional cooperation with Hungary and the implementation of joint projects within the framework of the Danube Strategy are essential to Bulgaria. The two countries will strengthen their partnership in marine navigation, as well as in controlling the quality of the Danube River’s water.
Rosen Plevneliev expressed his gratitude for Hungary’s principled and consistent support for Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen border-free area and recalled that our country had met the technical requirements for membership, expressing hopes that Bulgaria’s and Romania’s two-stage entry will become a fact.
The two presidents also reiterated their support for the process of EU enlargement. Rosen Plevneliev said that Bulgaria hopes that the agreement for good neighborly relations with Macedonia will soon be signed and the actions of the Macedonian authorities are of crucial importance in this respect.
Rosen Plevneliev thanked Hungary for displaying a good attitude towards the Bulgarian community in this Central-European country.
In the presence of Presidents Plevneliev and Ader, caretaker Minister of Education, Youth and Science Nikolay Miloshev and caretaker Minister of Culture, Vladimir Penev signed with Hungary’s Minister of Human Resources Zoltan Balog bilateral agreements in the spheres of education and culture.
In the aula of the Bulgarian school in Budapest, President Rosen Plevneliev will hold a meeting with representatives of the Bulgarian community in Hungary. After that, Plevneliev and President Janos Ader will attend a concert of the Filip Kutev Folk Dance Ensemble and the Yantra Folklore Ensemble of the Bulgarian community in Hungary.
On Wednesday, 3 April, the head of state will meet Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics and will open an exhibition in Budapest titled “Difficult Choice of Great Importance: the Fate of the Bulgarian Jews,” dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews during the second World War.