The bilateral cooperation between Sofia and Lisbon will focus on increasing the trade between Bulgaria and Portugal and using the Portuguese expertise to ensure economic and financial stabilization after the economic crisis in Europe. This is what emerged from President Rosen Plevneliev’s words, who held a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart Anibal Cavaco Silva at 2 Dondukov street today. The two Presidents were unanimous that the excellent political dialogue and partnership between Bulgaria and Portugal should be further strengthened.
The opinion shared by the two Presidents was that the severe economic and financial crisis dealt a blow on the competitiveness of the European economies and requires consistent efforts to develop the industries with a high added value. Rosen Plevneliev and Anibal Cavaco Silva voiced Bulgaria’s and Portugal’s readiness to more closely cooperate in the innovations and scientific research sectors, the introduction of e-services, increasing investments in the education sector and the practical training of young people to meet the business circles’ needs.
It was also highlighted at the meeting that expanding the bilateral trade requires support from the institutions and encouraging the contacts between the companies from the two countries. Tomorrow the two Heads of State will open a joint business forum at which a joint Bulgarian-Portuguese chamber of commerce will be set up. Memorandums on understanding between the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency and the Bulgarian Investment Agency, on the one hand, and the Investment and Foreign Trade Agency of Portugal, on the other, will be signed.
President Plevneliev said that Bulgaria shows an interest in Portugal’s expertise in absorbing EU structural funds. In the years after Portugal joined the EU, the country was called “Europe’s good student” and it managed to implement a large-scale policy of modernizing the country and building a state-of-the-art infrastructure through the EU funds.
In the coat-of-arms hall at 2 Dondukov street, the two presidents attended the act of signing a bilateral cooperation program between the governments of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Portuguese Republic in language matters, education and science, culture, sports, youth and mass communication sectors covering the 2015-2018 period. The two Presidents shared the opinion that the active cooperation in the science, education and culture sectors is an excellent basis for a subsequent expansion of the cultural and education exchange between Bulgaria and Portugal. An office of the Camoes Institute, the aim of which is to spread and popularize the Portuguese language and culture, was opened in Sofia in 2013. Currently in Bulgaria Portuguese philology is studied at the departments at the St. Kilment Ohridski University and the St. St. Cyril and Methodius University in Veliko Tarnovo.
Bulgaria actively participates in the activities of the state leaders Arraiolos group established on Portugal’s initiative, it further emerged from President Plevneliev’s words. The main highlights on the agenda of the format for political dialogue in 2015 are ensuring high-quality education and reducing youth unemployment, which in the Bulgarian Head of State’s opinion are of key importance for achieving sustainable growth in Europe. Our country joined the Arraiolos group thanks to President Cavaco Silva’s personal commitment.
President Plevneliev voiced his gratitude to his counterpart for Portugal’s consistent support for Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen border-free zone and also for the free-of-charge provision of the software product “Schengen information system for all.” The Bulgarian Head of State expressed his hope that our country will receive the European partners’ support for entering the first stage of joining the Schengen area by opening up the sea and air borders.
The unprecedented migration pressure on the EU’s external borders, triggered by the crises in the Middle East and Africa, necessitates that the EU takes urgent measures, was the position expressed by the two Heads of State. Presidents Rosen Plevneliev and Anibal Cavaco Silva called on for the EU member states to show solidarity and share the responsibility for resolving this serious problem. The Bulgarian Head of State voiced his conviction that a consensus will be reached at the forthcoming meeting of the European Council and a common solution will be found.
President Plevneliev briefed his Portuguese counterpart on the ambitious aims Bulgaria has set itself until it takes over the EU presidency in 2018 related to the accession to the Schengen border-free area, the Single Banking Supervisory Mechanism and the ERM II Mechanism.
Bulgaria will join the Center for Global Interdependence and Solidarity, known as the North-South Centre, set up in Lisbon 25 years ago, as part of the Council of Europe, it further emerged from President Plevneliev’s words.
President Anibal Cavaco Silva was welcomed by an official ceremony by Head of State Rosen Plevneliev on the St. Alexander Nevski square and laid a wreath in front of the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Sofia.