/ world today news/ Interview of Diana Yankulova, BNR with Iliana Yotova and Boyko Noev
Presenter: Our guests are Mrs. Iliana Yotova, MEP from the Group of Socialists and Democrats in the EP and Boyko Noev, analyst, former Minister of Defense. Hello and welcome.
Iliana Yotova: Good day!
Presenter: Let’s skip the issue with Great Britain and focus on that issue that still did not find light in the tunnel for a common European solution – the refugee problem. Yes, the time is not yet good to activate migrant flows, but it is coming, and the EU is not ready yet.
Iliana Yotova: It is not ready and the recent decisions by the Council are quite worrying. Personally, I expect this council to take a more concrete step on the part of the member states. Unfortunately, whether because there was no representative of Turkey, but in any case the decisions which the Council adopted and which were made public do not say anything new at all. Moreover, I am personally worried about two things. First, there is a retreat from the EC’s positions taken so far regarding the Dublin change. You know that this is extremely important for countries like Bulgaria. In the previous decisions of the Council, the decision of the EC was constantly cited that at the beginning of April a regulation was introduced to cancel the infamous text on the commitment of the state on first reception, i.e. the countries on the external borders of the EU, as is the case with Bulgaria. There is no word on this issue in the new decisions. Next week we will hear Commissioner Avramopolous in the EP and I will personally ask him why this change is necessary. Was this issue accidentally left out of the Council’s decisions, or did the EC simply bend to the big EU countries and once again put the fate of countries like Bulgaria and Croatia on the line. The second thing that worried me a lot is that there is no step, no decision on the expansion of FRONTEX as an agency for the external borders of the EU. You know, this was an idea that was widely publicized at the end of the last calendar year, and therefore the question is why this agency will protect more intensively only the borders of Schengen Europe and countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus, which also are part of the EU but not part of Schengen. Listening to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I can’t help but agree with a large part of what he said, but once again I was left with the painful feeling that Bulgaria continues to be an object of these politicians, but not a subject. I.e. the Bulgarian interest, the Bulgarian position is not defended in any way. At least those questions that concern our country and which are extremely important are not being asked. I will end my answer to your first question with something that also worried me in the foreign minister’s answers. He says that yesterday there was another meeting of the council on the refugee crisis and as you can see in our country everything is calm, there is no tension on the borders. Minister Bachvarova spoke in the same way at the beginning of the summer of last year, and then in August we saw what happened after about 1,000 people entered Bulgaria every week. I believe that such behavior, in which we claim that everything is fine, is not only inadequate, but also dangerous for us right now.
Presenter: Politico magazine published in its last issue a diagram “The influence of different countries in the EU” and Bulgaria and Romania were in the bottom left corner, suggesting that “one country, one vote” is only a principle, and sometimes one vote weighs far more than everyone else’s. We have seen how the UK played its cards, but is there a way for Bulgaria and Romania to actively oppose remaining in this buffer? Metaphorically speaking, “between two migrant waves” – those who will still strive for Europe, and others who will return from there, due to not meeting the conditions to flee from war.
Iliana Yotova: There is, of course, only that it requires specific intervention of the Bulgarian authorities, of the Bulgarian state. Not just listening to what is being said in the Soviets and doing what the global powers draw for you, ie. an active policy that is not implemented in any way. I want to ask why and how many times Bulgaria did not put the topic of changing the Dublin Agreement on the table. Why can countries like Italy, like Greece talk about this topic? Why are countries like Croatia able to talk about this topic and our government is silent? I think that going to the meeting of the Visegrad Four was a big blunder and a mistake, and not because it should not have been heard or informed. By the way, it didn’t matter at all whether the Prime Minister went to that meeting. There are diplomatic channels through which the Bulgarian position can be stated, if it is requested. I think it was a mistake that the Bulgarian position should have been announced during Orban’s visit, which did not change within a week or two, and not all this theater with the phone conversations with Merkel, in which she told us what let’s say the Visegrad Four. This vassal attitude of our country to European affairs will always place us in the position of a passive recipient of this policy.
Leading: I think we are not sure exactly which side to take because we don’t know which plan will prevail.
Iliana Yotova: I never heard the Bulgarian position, especially since it suffers as always from division, because when Orban was here, the Bulgarian Prime Minister was quoted by all the European media as supporting his Hungarian counterpart to close the borders tightly. 10 days later, this position was changed at the meeting of the Visegrad Four after the telephone conversation with Merkel in question, so that our position depends on who is visiting us or who we are visiting. The second thing, however, which is more serious, I will say in your studio maybe one piece of news – in November I sent a letter to the EC, in which I asked them to tell me exactly how they see the distribution of these new 100,000 places for refugees in the Balkan countries, as Juncker told the Balkan prime ministers on October 25. Notice when the EC answered me – last week. This answer says that Macedonia has promised 2,000 places, Serbia about 12,000, and asks the real question, “And up to 100,000?” Where will the rest of the refugee places be?” I just want to point out that these are new places, outside of the quotas we talked about last year, and I want to ask who and how will finance these places for refugees. And what was the Bulgarian position, because we never understood what baggage Prime Minister Borisov brought to this meeting. You see how Bulgaria puts itself in a very dangerous position. We will implement what the European Council decides and we will not actively set what we would like to happen. The exclusion of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia from the scope of the new border protection agency, translated into simple language, means that Schengen Europe will be encapsulated, and we will remain the countries on the periphery who have to deal with refugees, because at the moment , in which, God forbid, the Orbán plan worked and the Greek-Macedonian border was closed, we know where these people will come, don’t we. Very dangerous things about which there is still no public debate, this topic is still not on the agenda in the National Assembly and there is still complete lack of transparency about what our positions in the Council and in Europe are that need to be defended.
Leading: It is clear that Bulgaria is not planned in border security. It is clear that the EU is yet to decide how to deal with the refugee crisis. Will sending the army to the border help?
Iliana Yotova: From all that we are saying, Mrs. Yankulova, although this sounds very pessimistic, we cannot be refuted, because exactly one year ago in this studio I asked several questions that practically became a reality. Then you know that the refugee crisis was more in Italy. We warned even then that the Balkan road is the next one and it will be very crisis-ridden in the coming years. We said there would be problems at our border and unfortunately we found out again last summer. Now, however, what I think is important to say is that, apart from the army, the next step should be to tighten and increase the capacity of the Bulgarian services, because the question is not only to manage the wave of refugees, but also to guarantee security, as of our own citizens as well as of the EU. I believe that investment should be made in this direction.
Leading: … and not just wondering which party controls them.
Iliana Yotova: I even got irritated when the foreign minister explained himself more on the topic of carriers with the opposition than solving the issue, because it is inexplicable to me how two days ago there was a Council where all the European leaders were gathered, where they were represented all European institutions and that there is absolutely no response to what is happening on the Bulgarian-Greek border. This means that Europe does not care about us at all, nor does it take into account our problems.
(the minister of transport is included to comment on the situation at the border)
Leading: Athens does not want to intervene by force with the farmers blocked at the border because it wants to show Brussels that the restrictions plan that the creditors are imposing is unworkable. How will you comment on the absolutely blocked Bulgarian-Greek border?
Iliana Yotova: I will say just two sentences. First, Minister Moskovski said that these incidents are from January 15. There was no reason for Bulgarian diplomacy to sit and wait for a month. At the meeting of the council, which was held, it should have been included under the so-called urgent procedure and to be discussed at the council, because this is a violation of the EU Treaties. Second, Bulgaria must do everything possible to get the EC to start a procedure against Greece for breaching the treaties, because free movement is being blocked. And Minister Moskovski has nothing to stand at the border for, because this is a pretty cheap PR, and he should go to Brussels and defend the interests of our country there. And in the ranking you quoted a little while ago, I will allow myself one sentence at the end. Do you see the relative value of the influence of countries like Bulgaria? Because it is not important to receive only cards and hearts and a pat on the shoulder, but to be in solidarity with our country as the President of the EC, when this is necessary.
Leading: Thank you for this conversation!
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