site.btaPM Borissov: "United and Strong EU Can Serve as Arab World's Role Model"

October 29 (BTA) - "A united and strong European Union
is a far more appropriate and powerful partner of the Arab
World. The Arab World can take the EU as a role model of the
rule of law, women's' and children's rights," Bulgarian Prime
Minister Boyko Borissov said, addressing the opening of the 3rd
EU-Arab World Summit "Shared Horizons" here on Monday, quoted by
 the Government Information Service.

The Bulgarian head of government recalled the subject of Western
 Balkans connectivity. He stressed the enormous opportunities
offered by the Balkans as a whole, saying that the idea of the
quadrilateral meetings between Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and
Serbia is to improve the competitiveness of the Balkan region.
During the forum, he expressed the hope that the construction of
 the Bulgaria-Greece natural gas interconnector will be
finalized before the end of the year and added that this matter
will figure high on the agenda of his talks with Greek Prime
Minister Alexis Tsipras in Varna (on the Black Sea) on November
2.

Borissov stressed the need of setting up food hubs in the
Balkans to assist the migrants' regions of origin. "The
migration wave itself, which is overwhelming us in Europe and
has literally wrecked quite a few countries, showed that we must
 think about Africa, about those countries in the world where
famine is a problem," the speaker argued.

In his opening address at the EU-Arab World Summit, Borissov
cited Bulgarian-Greek relations as an example of
good-neighbourlness and excellent partnership. "We never pursue
a policy against third countries. With peace, understanding and
cooperation, Bulgaria and Greece have always set an example of
good-neighbourliness, irrespective of the political systems,
irrespective of the political parties, we know that we have
always been and must forever be friends with Greece," Borissov
added.

He noted that the meeting in Istanbul of the leaders of Germany,
 France, Russia and Turkey opened up fine prospects for a
political settlement of the crisis in Syria. RY/LG