The adequate utilization of the potential of the Cohesion policy as a factor ensuring economic growth in times of crisis and as a tool to overcome the disparities in the development of the EU member states was the major accent in the bilateral meetings held between President Rosen Plevneliev and his counterparts from Latvia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – Andris Berzinsh, Ivan Gashparovich and Milos Zeman. The Bulgarian Head of State is on a working visit to the Republic of Slovakia on the occasion of the 18th summit of the leaders of the Central and East European countries. Rosen Plevneliev was adamant that promoting the EU’s interests as a community depends on the union’s ability to defend the interests of the countries from the separate regions.
The heads of state shared the opinion that amid the ongoing economic crisis the higher level of connectedness between the member states is essential to ensuring stability, creating favorable conditions for economic growth in the future. The President identified the following areas as opening up very good opportunities in this respect: the expansion of the project for connecting the energy and gas transit networks of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland with countries from the neighboring regions and the establishment of a single market. “Slovakia is now experiencing shortage of electricity, while Bulgaria has excess supply of electricity that cannot be implemented namely because of the lack of such interconnectors,” Rosen Plevneliev pointed out. In the Head of State’s words, connecting Bulgaria’s energy system to the regional energy market that is currently being established is an issue related to the country’s national security.
The prospects for connecting the Baltic countries to the Black Sea region was also discussed at the meeting held between the Head of State and Andris Berzinsh, President of Latvia.
The Head of State’s forthcoming visit to Slovakia on the occasion of commemorating the 1150th anniversary of the Great Moravian mission of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius was agreed on at the meeting held between Rosen Plevneliev and President Ivan Gashparovich. “Both Bulgaria and Slovakia show an interest in launching new and innovative productions and this ensures many prospects for the expansion of the bilateral cooperation. The Danube strategy is another factor that opens up opportunities for the implementation of joint projects,” the President said.
The situation of the Czech CEZ company and the results of the checks conducted by the EC, the World Bank, State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission along the entire chain of agents in the energy sector was the central issue discussed at the meeting with Czech president Milos Zeman.