SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS

Statement Made by President Rosen Plevneliev after the Meeting of the Consultative Council for National Security

Good morning and welcome to all.

I would like to thank the representatives of the political parties represented in Parliament for the national responsibility they showed today. We have had a successful Consultative Council for National Security, at which we reached a full consensus, only Attack expressed reservations, however, despite all that it is part of the decision. I am sure that the institutions from the Security sector are receiving a clear signal of unity and support.

The Consultative Council for National Security discussed the changes in the geo-strategic security environment and the risks and threats they entail, as well as the capacities of the state institutions to efficiently counteract them.

In the past years we have witnessed fundamental changes in the security environment in Europe and the world. The international relations system is facing new challenges. We are witnessing a process of global confrontation, of increase of the current risks and the occurrence of new risks and threats to the stability in the world. The observed processes are caused by the change of the behavior, significance and weight of the basic global and regional factors.

The threats of an asymmetric transnational character are becoming stronger. We are observing an expansion of terrorism based on religious and ethnic extremism, which is the result of the failure of states in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere. The phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters has a long-term negative effect. The mass refugee and migration flows caused by the armed conflicts and disproportions in the social and economic development are likely to grow into humanitarian crises. The refugee pressure and the illegal migration have become a major risk factor for the EU and the member states.

The problems with migration, human trafficking and terrorism will continue to be a serious threat to our national security. The failed states and the record number of conflicts in Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the appearance and the rise of the so-called Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, have led to an unprecedented migration pressure exerted on Europe, an external border of which is also Bulgaria. The differences in the social, economic and political state of the countries from the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia, on the one hand, and Europe, on the other, the lack of security and prospects for the population in a lot of countries additionally increase the migration wave. Basic EU common policies are put to the test. The Dublin system for responsibility for granting asylum cannot be considered adequate to the specificity and proportions of the migration flow. The Schengen system for border and visa control is also insufficiently efficient.

The great number of migrants considerably burdened the social systems and security services in the country and makes it necessary to allocate serious financial resources, which require extra planning. The Interior Ministry has developed and is adopting the necessary plans and complex measures to protect the national border from illegal migrants; currently it is important to speed up their implementation. The active counteraction of the channels and schemes for human trafficking by all competent law-enforcement institutions is becoming a priority.

At this stage the most immediate risk for our country, without underestimating the other risks, is the risk of continuation and increase of the migration flow to and through Bulgaria. The situation could deteriorate as a result of the ongoing inability of the EU to efficiently protect its external borders, to formulate new rules for the fair solution of the migration problem, and also to assist finding a lasting solution to the root causes for the migration crisis.

The danger of terrorist acts in Europe is increasing as a result of the increasingly more tangible radicalization of some groups in society – particularly in the Western European countries. This is a new, yet serious problem the countries from our continent are facing. European citizens take part in the military actions on the side of Islamic state and other terrorist groups. They transfer their experience and radical ideas to their homelands, which additionally increases the threats from terrorism. In this respect, it is important that the Bulgarian institutions take sufficiently efficient preventive measures so that we can protect ourselves from the development of such processes in Bulgaria.

The members of the Consultative Council for National Security have established that we are observing a growing trend towards a global political confrontation  between the EU and NATO, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other. The crisis in Ukraine is going on. A considerable number of frozen conflicts exist next to our borders. The presence of conflicts in close proximity to our borders and the change of the balance of forces in the Black Sea region create additional tension. The problems and dangers for the security of the Western Balkan countries remain unsolved.

The members of the Consultative Council for National Security think that we can add to these crises the fact that so far Bulgaria’s energy security has not been ensured. We are dependent on one dominant gas supplier and our connectivity with our neighboring countries is insufficient. Bulgaria should pool efforts to preserve its positions in the transit of energy resources.

The global factors that have a negative impact on the different aspects of our national security also include: poor economic development, poverty, social exclusion, unemployment – particularly youth unemployment, the instability of the financial sector, the changes in the environment and climate; the demographic problems, the religious confrontation and the radicalization of some groups in countries that are in close proximity to Bulgaria; threats to our information security and others.

We have established that our country has not built the necessary system and we do not have enough resources available to efficiently cope with the growing cyber-threats. At the end of October, moreover under conditions of an election process, we witnessed the most serious cyber-attack against Bulgaria so far. The fact that it was launched on the day when the elections and the referendum were conducted showed that it has a clear aim and is a provocation against the public and the state. Although it demonstrated strength in cyber-space that few countries have, it also showed the vulnerability of our country. The attacks against the websites of a lot of state institutions made the work of the latter more difficult and clearly indicate the scale of the danger. This is a new danger which needs an in-depth analysis and the adoption of sufficiently efficient measures to counteract it and we should also use the experience of the partner security services to this effect. Urgent measures of a regulatory, institutional, staff and resources character should be taken.

Given the great number of different and serious threats surrounding us, the answer we will give, is of primary importance. We should invest in security and defense. The crises interact with each other, which leads to a new, so far unobserved level of unpredictability of the international security environment. The citizens feel the instability. Only together with our partners from the democratic countries and through Bulgaria’s EU and NATO membership, can we cope with the challenges we are facing.

The members of the Consultative Council for National Security think that the nature and the seriousness of all political, asymmetric and economic risks and threats will be preserved in a medium-term perspective. The whole staff, financial and technological potential of the country should be mobilized to neutralize them by taking adequate measures. Additional steps should be made to optimize the functioning of the Security sector services, to overcome the inner tension observed in some units of the sector and ensure the necessary resources, which will allow an adequate counteraction of the threats to the national security.

On the basis of the delivered reports and the opinions expressed, the Consultative Council for National Security makes the following recommendations:

1.    The Council of Ministers should propose measures directed at optimizing the activity of the structures in the Security sector and improving their capacities to deal with the changed security environment.
2.    The Security Council at the Council of Ministers should adopt an action plan under conditions of a large-scale refugee and migration wave at any external Bulgarian border, for which financial and technical assistance should be provided.  The efficient protection of the state border is a major priority.
3.    The Council of Ministers should develop and table to the National Assembly a bill on counteracting terrorism.
4.    The Council of Ministers should provide financial, technical and staff assistance to the cyber-security units in building capacities to efficiently and timely counteract the cyber-attacks. The Council of Ministers should adopt a cyber-security strategy and a plan to implement it. An appropriate structural organization should be set up, which, under the leadership of a national cyber-security coordinator, should carry out the activities related to the implementation of the cyber-security strategy.
5.    The Council of Ministers should initiate legislative amendments to bring the regulatory basis in line with that of the EU and NATO regarding the protection of the communication and information systems. The international mechanisms and programs for building common cyber-defense capacities and capabilities should be efficiently used.
6.    All competent institutions should actively work to form a common European stance on finding a lasting solution to the conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa and the migration pressure.
7.    The Bulgarian institutions and political parties should actively work to form a common European stance on broadening the security zone by speeding up the EU integration of the Western Balkan countries in compliance with the membership criteria and safeguarding the Bulgarian national interests.
8.    The Bulgarian institutions and politicians should actively participate in the process of finding lasting solutions to coping with the reasons for the migration crisis in a couple of directions:
-    eliminating the reasons causing the stronger migration pressure;
-    stabilizing the political and economic situation in the conflict zones and the countries of origin and transit;
-    strengthened cooperation with the countries of origin and transit and their long-term commitment to fighting illegal migration;
-    improving the level of border security;
-    pursuing an efficient return policy and implementation of readmission agreements;
-    assisting the countries most affected by the migration pressure in building capacities and allocating sufficient financial resources.

I would once again like to thank the members of the Consultative Council for National Security. I highly appreciate the nationally-responsible approach they adopted.

Thank you all.