site.btaPM Borissov: EU Should Show it Can Manage without UK

PM Borissov: EU Should Show it Can Manage without UK

Sofia, June 24 (BTA) - Reacting to the results of Thursday's referendum in the UK in favour of the country's exit from the EU (the so-called Brexit), Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov told journalists in Parliament that the European Union should show it can manage without the UK.

"I respect the choice of their people, although from today onwards it will be heavily divided. The UK's exit will have an impact, the EU becomes weaker, there will be consequences for everyone," Borissov noted.

According to the Prime Minister, the results of the British referendum mark a bad day for Europe. "The right thing for us to do is, since they have chosen to be left alone in deciding their fate, to start thinking about Europe without them," he added. In his words, no kind of negotiations on special statuses and the like should be held because this would reck the EU. "You see how the markets are reacting, how the British pound is plummeting," he commented, adding that what applies to all non-EU countries should be applied to the UK.

Asked whether the EU should change, Borissov said that there is no system which does not need to change constantly. "Many of the things I have said about the EU turned out to be true. We could have stopped the Balkan route [of migrants] a year ago. I have insisted on this many times and it took place a year later, and see how many illegal migrants entered Europe. There are many things to be corrected. This will be a lesson for all of us to act more quickly and with more discipline," Borissov noted.