“Concrete policies, not theoretical constructions which were written in offices, will determine the EU’s future.” This is what Vice-president Iliana Iotova said, who opened e discussion on the topic of “Europe’s Future – Strength in Unity”.
“We are going through one of the most turbulent periods in the history of the European community. The way the EU is functioning does not satisfy our people,” the Vice-president said and added that there are a lot of reasons for the current situation – starting with bureaucracy, which replaced strategic vision, and ending up with the delayed responses to the crises that have shaken us in the past years. “We cannot possibly engage the European citizens to take part in the debate on the EU’s future. Has indifference already become a diagnosis – this is the most important question we should answer,” the Vice-president said.
Iliana Iotova said that security in all its aspects has been the key word across Europe in the past years. Eighty percent of the European citizens expect that Europe will improve its results in the fight against terrorism, and almost the same percent of citizens insist that Europe should cope with unemployment and social inequalities, environmental protection and tax frauds. “People should have the feeling that the union addresses the problems in these areas,” the Vice-president added.
In Iliana Iotova’s words, there is no public conception of and debate on the Community’s budget in the post-2020 period. In terms of EU financing, a major priority of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU is to preserve the Cohesion policy.
“The major problem Europe is facing is its failure to establish a common policy in the sphere of granting asylum, the readmission provisions of the EU-Turkey Agreement are not complied with, so Turkey should be categorically informed about that,” Iliana Iotova said and added that fighting terrorism and radicalization, the need to pursue a new type of policy, specifically in the area of security and defense, are among the most important issues the EU should address.
In the Vice-president’s words, the common defense policy should not draw new lines of division in Europe. Furthermore, the emergence of a new Schengen, this time in the sphere of defense, should be avoided. In Iliana Iotova’s opinion, identifying the Western Balkans’ European integration as one of the priorities is a great success of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The debates held in the National Palace of Culture were part of the meeting of the Chairpersons of the committees of the national parliaments of the European Union Member States dealing with European affairs (COSAC). Other keynote speakers on the topic were Frans Timmermans, first deputy-President of the European Commission and Iskra Mihaylova, Chair of the Committee on Regional Development in the European Parliament.