President Plevneliev: Italy is Bulgaria’s Important Strategic Partner and Ally
2016-01-28 10:39:00
Italy is Bulgaria’s extremely important strategic partner and ally. This is what Bulgarian Head of State Rosen Plevneliev said at a meeting he held with Sergio Mattarella, President of the Republic of Italy.
At the talks, the two presidents discussed the vision of the future EU enlargement and the relations with the neighboring countries of the EU. The common opinions on this topic are the basis on which an even more active dialogue between Bulgaria and Italy can be held, Rosen Plevneliev pointed out.
The Bulgarian President highlighted Italy’s strong economic presence in Bulgaria and the potential for increasing the Italian investments in our country. In 2014 alone, the Italian investments in Bulgaria were worth 19 million euros and in the period 1996-2014 they were close to 1,5 billion euros, which makes Italy one of the top ten investors in our country. Bilateral trade has also increased by 30 percent and it is worth 4.2 billion euros, making Italy the second largest trade partner of Bulgaria after Germany.
To make the economic ties even more intensive, President Plevneliev invited his Italian counterpart to visit Bulgaria together with a business delegation. No Italian head of state has visited Bulgaria in the past 10 years. Both countries consider energy and energy connectivity and supplies as a priority. The signing of the investment decision for building the gas inter-connector between Bulgaria and Greece with the participation of an Italian company is a real step toward diversification of the energy supplies, President Plevenliev said.
Rosen Plevneliev and Sergio Mattarella exchanged opinions on the EU migration policy as well. “Only by pooling efforts and taking united actions can Europe cope with this challenge. Only together can we make sustainable long-term decisions,” the Bulgarian President emphasized. Italy and Bulgaria are working together on two of the biggest problems Europe is facing today – the refugee wave and fighting terrorism. In the Italian President’s view, there should be a much greater exchange of information in the EU related to terrorism. If this had been done, in his words, some of the terror acts could have been prevented.
Both presidents share the opinion that a common European policy on the integration and repatriation of the refugees should be adopted. In Sergio Mattarella’s view, the EU should rather invest in a tighter control of its external borders, instead of the individual member-states closing their borders and thus discrediting the Schengen area. President Rosen Plevneliev said that the approach adopted should be directed at integrating the refugees and repatriating the economic immigrants. Italy’s Head of State voiced his country’s firm support for Bulgaria’s Schengen membership.
The two heads of state expressed their concern over the growing risk of restoring the nationalist ideas in Europe. At the meeting President Plevneliev raised the issue that the Bulgarian Cultural Center in Rome needs an adequate building, which will strengthen the cultural ties between the two countries.
The Bulgarian Head of State is on a two-day official visit to Rome.
