There is no threat of imposing labour restrictions in Great Britain for Bulgarian and Romanian citizens after 1 January 2014. This is what became clear after a meeting held between President Rosen Plevneliev and British Prime Minister David Cameron together with representatives of the British cabinet in London. The head of state was reassured that the process of lifting the labor restrictions for next year will take place smoothly. “Countries such as Sweden and France have already shown that Bulgaria is not a problematic country from this point of view”, the President commented and once again firmly ruled out the possibility of an immigration flood of Bulgarian citizens to EU member states.
The Bulgarian head of state visited the British capital to take part in the funeral ceremony of Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the United Kingdom (1979-1990). “Margaret Thatcher found the appropriate balance between stimulating the reforms in the former Soviet Union, so that the Eastern and Central European countries stood the chance of establishing democracy,” Rosen Plevneliev commented after the ceremony and defined the deceased British prime minister as “the engine that triggered the fall of the “Iron Curtain”. “Margaret Thatcher helped many countries to take the path of democratization and we will never forget this,” the head of state further added. He attended the funeral ceremony together with Petar Stoyanov, former Bulgarian president (1997-2002) and many other leaders from across the world.
President Rosen Plevneliev debated the future of the Nabucco-West project together with representatives of the UK British Petroleum company in the British capital. The countries participating in the project hope to attract the company as a strategic investor. Bulgaria needs a diversification of the gas supplies, the President recalled and emphasized that our country would “support any pipeline that will potentially pass through Bulgarian territory.” As for the Nabucco-West project, the President added that its implementation is at “its final stage.” The project is based on competition and this requires that the countries in the consortium should put greater efforts into attracting a strategic investor, which the British company potentially is, the head of state commented. In his words, it is still early to forecast what the investment decision will be.