site.btaBulgarian Foreign Minister Confers with German Counterpart in Berlin

Berlin/Sofia, July 2 - During the second day of her official visit to Germany, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva conferred with her host Heiko Maas, Zaharieva's Ministry said in a press release Monday. „

The two foreign ministers concurred that a common European solution is the only possible one to the problem with migration.

"The fact that the EU leaders succeeded in reaching unanimity and a clear plan at the recent European Council meeting means that even during hard times we are able to stand united and together. Unilateral actions are not good for either the country who applies them or the entire EU," Zaharieva said, noting her satisfaction that the EU leaders have appreciated Bulgaria's efforts in respect of migration.

The Bulgarian Foreign Minister said that there is no migratory pressure at the Bulgarian border at the moment and listed the key points her country upholds for finding a solution: closing the EU external borders, extending the agreement with Turkey, migration centres outside Europe, and quick return of illegal migrants.

Maas too said that the problem can only be solved by a common European solution, and not national ones.

The German Foreign Minister congratulated Zaharieva on the successful Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council which has just ended. Maas said that Bulgaria achieved impressive things which were not easy. He singled out the conclusions concerning enlargement of the General Affairs Council in respect of Macedonia and Albania, which he said would not have been possible without Bulgaria's efforts.

Zaharieva thanked for the praise and the support. "We achieved a lot on rather divisive topics. The security borders of the EU are not just its external borders but also include the borders of the Western Balkans," she said.

Approached by a reporter when Bulgaria will at last join the passport-free Schengen Area, having met the technical conditions to do so back in 2011, Maas said that Germany supports Bulgaria's entry in the Area and recognize the efforts the country has made in this respect.

Zaharieva and Maas also discussed the excellent bilateral relations. Next year will see the 140th anniversary since the two countries established diplomatic relations.

"The German business is welcome in Bulgaria and has the full support of the government," Zaharieva said.

Later on Monday the Bulgarian Foreign Minister is also scheduled to meet with Konrad Adenauer Foundation Board of Directors Chairman Norbert Lammert and with Jan Hecker, Foreign Policy Adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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In a backgrounder for the visit, the Foreign Ministry recalled that Zaharieva last visited Berlin in this capacity on May 30-31, 2017, as a guest to then Federal Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. A German foreign minister last visited Bulgaria on March 10, 2015. That was Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is now Federal President of Germany.

"Bulgaria regards the Federal Republic of Germany as a strategic partner and ally in the EU and NATO. Political dialogue is pursued vigorously at all levels," the press release said.

Bilateral trade relations are substantial and tend upwards. Two-way trade reached 7,300 million euro for 2017, up 9.9 per cent, year on year. Last year Bulgarian exports to Germany increased by 11.7 per cent from 2016 to 3,591 million euro, which represents 11.7 per cent of this country's total exports. Three federal states: North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg, are responsible for almost a third of Bulgaria's trade with Germany, which is almost balanced, with Germany running a minor surplus of 111 million euro, down from 206 million a year earlier. The products that are imported and exported are similar. Textiles and apparel, machinery, electronics, and base metals and articles of base metal top the Bulgarian export list. This country imports from Germany mainly machinery and apparatus, textiles and apparel, electronics, transport vehicles and equipment, and chemical and pharmaceutical products.

Germany ranks high as a home country of foreign investments in Bulgaria. Long-term corporate investments are evenly distributed by sector and region, and more than half of them are greenfield investments in the form of setting up a subsidiary or branch. Some 5,000 German companies are doing business in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian National Bank estimates the stock of foreign direct investments from Germany in Bulgaria for the 1996-2017 period at 3,256 million euro. The inflow for 2017 alone was 130.7 million euro. Some 30 per cent of the top 100 investors in Bulgaria are wholly or partly German-owned.

Person-to-person contacts are also making progress. The 870,448 German tourists who visited Bulgaria in 2017 were 5.3 per cent more than in the previous year and ranked Germany as the source country of the third most numerous visitors to Bulgaria after neighbouring Greece and Romania.

The German Federal Statistical Office reports that 310,415 Bulgarians were registered as long-term residents in Germany by December 31, 2017. Of them, more than 7,000 were university students.

The Bulgarian diaspora in Germany has set up 20 Bulgarian-German associations. There are church communities in Berlin, Munich, Dusseldorf and Nuremberg. Bulgarian schools operate in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Nuremberg. A Bulgarian Cultural Institute functions in the German capital.

Bulgaria has an embassy in Berlin, a consulate general in Munich, a consulate in Frankfurt am Main, and five honorary consuls: in Hamburg, Darmstadt, Magdeburg, Munster, and Stuttgart. Germany has an embassy in Sofia and two honorary consuls: in Plovdiv and Varna.