site.btaPrime Minister Borissov Participates in 5th Eastern Partnership Summit

Brussels/Sofia, November 24 (BTA) - Prime Minister Boyko Borissov is participating in the 5th Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels on Friday, the Government Information Service said. He is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister for Judicial Reform and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva.

The Eastern Partnership is a EU initiative within the European Neighbourhood Policy, which is aimed at achieving political association and economic integration of the Eastern neighbours with the EU. It is also among the priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council within the Trio Programme of Estonia, Bulgaria and Austria.

The participants in the 5th Eastern Partnership Summit - heads of state or government from the EU Member States and the six Eastern partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine) - are expected to take stock of what has been achieved since the last summit in Riga in 2015 and to outline the initiative's future development. Also on the agenda is the signing of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, the press release reads.

Taking questions by Bulgarian journalists in Brussels, Borissov expressed the hope that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will manage to form a cabinet, because it is vital that Germany has a government. "While Germany is blocked by these negotiations, nothing is going as it should," he added.

Asked whether Moscow is scared by the 5th Eastern Partnership Summit, the Bulgarian PM said that Russia is not among the countries which are easily scared. "There are always problems in this region [of the Eastern Partnership] but just like in the Western Balkans, no one is perfect," he noted. In his words, it is better when everyone is sitting around the same table so that the problems can be discussed. "Everything is solved through dialogue, in a European way," he added.

As EU's external eastern border, Bulgaria is interested in more countries observing the rules, most of these states being in the Black Sea Region, Borissov told journalists. "Our main hopes for energy diversification are linked to Azerbaijan. I am an optimist about what is happening," he said. In his words, Bulgaria's wonderful cooperation with the Eastern Partnership countries can only become deeper. "The Black Sea can become a place traversed by gas pipelines from several places, there can be ports, business; the connection with the Danube creates huge opportunities," he went on to say. Bulgaria serves as an example with its higher education programmes for students from Eastern Partnership countries, and almost all of their captains and sailors have studied at the Naval Academy in Varna (on the Black Sea), the Prime Minister added.

Asked about the future of the Brexit negotiations, Borissov said his personal feeling was that these might end without an agreement. "I hope that we will maintain good relations with the UK. Let optimism prevail and there be a favourable outcome, and it would be best if they remained in the EU," he commented.

Asked whether Bulgaria is ready for unexpected events during the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2018, the Prime Minister said that an affirmative answer to this question would be an overestimation. "Whoever prime minister may you ask here, he will tell you that they are not ready. We will have to deal with a lot: the Eastern Partnership, the Western Balkans, Brexit, the budget frameworks, the European security and defence, and cyber security," Borissov said. He added he relies on his colleagues in Bulgaria, mentioning the head of State, the National Assembly Chairperson, and the parliamentary represented parties.

BTA Correspondent to Brussels Nikolay Jeliazkov contributed to this story.