site.btaForeign Minister Zaharieva Meets with EU Council Secretary-General

Sofia, December 20 (BTA) - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and the EU Council's Secretary-General Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen discussed Bulgaria's readiness to assume the rotating EU Council Presidency in January, the Foreign Ministry said.

Zaharieva said: "We are focused on effectively preparing the discussions in the Council, with special attention to migration, security and defence, digitization, Brexit and, last but not least, the economic dossiers." She stressed that preparation was under way and an extraordinary meeting of the General Affairs Council (Article 50) was scheduled for January 2018 to adopt the additional negotiating directives on transitional arrangements for Brexit.

Zaharieva also said Bulgaria would work on more than 200 dossiers during its EU Presidency. "In view of this, we are ready to hold working lunches between GAC's regular meetings and the extraordinary ones (Art 50) so as to continue the discussions and achieve a consensus among the Member States on Brexit-related matters," she said. She stressed that this would be one of the central topics, but that no less attention would be paid to the European perspective of the Western Balkans, migration, the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework and Cohesion Policy.

The working meeting is part of Tranholm-Mikkelsen's two-day visit to Sofia during which he met with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and ministers.