The competitiveness of the individual member states should not be placed under administrative pressure, the Presidents of Bulgaria and Hungary called for
The economic and social cohesion between East and West Europe is a guarantee for the unity and efficiency of the European Union both in a domestic and international aspect, was the position shared by the Presidents of Bulgaria and Hungary Rumen Radev and Janos Ader, who held a meeting today in Budapest. The Bulgarian Head of State is on an official visit to Hungary at the invitation of his counterpart. The two Presidents were unanimous that political will and financial commitment within the EU are necessary to improve the transport and energy cohesion in Central and East Europe as the most efficient measure to overcome the imbalances in the development of the individual member states.
“We should work in a way so that, despite the increased fragmentariness in the European Parliament, we could overcome our differences, form more efficient institutions, and work to ensure a social and economic cohesion between the North and the South, the East and the West,” Rumen Radev emphasized.
The competitiveness of the individual EU member states should not be placed under administrative pressure, as was the case with the Mobility package, because such a thing encourages division, it was further emphasized at the meeting in Budapest. President Radev highlighted the necessity to observe the principles laid down in the Rome declaration for a stronger cohesion in the EU, and Janos Ader highlighted the necessity of preserving the institutional balance in Europe by stopping the continuous expansion of the competencies and powers of the European institutions and observing the common agreements, which guarantee the four basic principles of the free movement of people, goods, services and capitals.
Bulgaria and Hungary will work to ensure a more efficient European policy vis-à-vis migration, protecting the external European borders, the clear distinction between the refugees and the economic migrants and their return, and also the much more intense cooperation with the migrants’ countries of origin, it further emerged at the meeting. Rumen Radev thanked Janos Ader for Hungary’s timely support offered to Bulgaria under FRONTEX and for the ensured extra European funding for the protection of our country’s external borders.
Rumen Radev and Janos Ader also made a review of the bilateral economic and investment cooperation. In the past years, thanks to the active Bulgarian community in Hungary, the Hungarian investments in Bulgarian economy have reached 2 billion euros, and the annual trade has exceeded 1,6 billion euros. The number of Bulgarians choosing to spend their holidays in Hungary is increasing and also that of the Hungarian tourists in Bulgaria.
At the meeting Rumen Radev extended gratitude to Janos Ader also for the Hungarian state’s active support for the Bulgarian community in the country for preserving its native language, national identity and historical memory. President Radev voiced conviction that this European approach, which brings the two friendly countries closer, will continue to create favorable conditions for a comprehensive partnership between Bulgaria and Hungary in the future as well. President Ader said that the Bulgarian community in Hungary is famous and valued for its honest labor and recalled the traditions of the Bulgarian gardeners. “We value the Bulgarians here and many Hungarian tourists love to visit Bulgaria,” President Ader further said and added that not only the tourists’ interest in Bulgaria is great but also that of the Hungarian enterprises.
Earlier President Radev and his wife Desisilava Radeva were welcomed with an official ceremony by Hungarian Head of State Janos Ader and his wife Anita Herczeg.
In Budapest the Bulgarian President also held a meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Parliament Speaker Lazslo Kover.