site.bta President Plevneliev to "Corriere della Sera": "We Need New Ideas in 21st Century"

President Plevneliev to "Corriere della Sera": "We Need New Ideas in 21st Century"

Sofia, January 30 (BTA) - Interviewed by the Italian daily "Corriere della Sera," Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev says that throughout history Europe has seen much intolerance, xenophobia and anti-Semitism which have fuelled destruction and wars. "We need new, better ideas in the 21st century," Plevneliev says, as quoted by his Press Secretariat.

He calls on his European colleagues to hold on to the vision of a Europe free of internal borders, which is at the heart of the European Union. He notes that the Schengen area has fulfilled the dream of all Europeans to travel freely and without barriers across Europe.

Plevneliev believes that the EU was not created out of "national short-sightedness" but for the sake of peace. "There is only one way to guarantee peace: the European nations must reach a level of cooperation and integration among themselves which will make a future war impossible," he says.

After joining the EU, Bulgaria "stepped onto the right track" and made progress, he says. The nation is not rich yet, it has a path to travel, but during its EU membership its economy has grown threefold, the President remarks.

According to him, Bulgaria is in a region beset by instability, which has been observed in Macedonia and has also resulted from a changing geostrategic balance in the Black Sea region, tensions between Russia and Turkey, and waves of migrants. "Bulgaria is playing an important role as a meeting point," he says.

Asked how his country is dealing with the refugee pressure, the President says there is no contradiction between respecting human rights and protecting the external EU borders. Out of 31,000 people registered in 2015 and interviewed by the Bulgarian authorities, 12,000 were fleeing war, and Bulgaria is taking care of them, but economic migrants cannot be given refugee status, Plevneliev tells "Corriere della Sera."

The Bulgarian President was in Rome between January 27 and 28 as one of the keynote speakers at a high-level meeting on interfaith dialogue. He also talked with Italian President Sergio Mattarella.