site.btaPresident Radev: Bulgaria Supports EU Unity and Solidarity, Opposes Two-Speed Europe

President Radev: Bulgaria Supports EU Unity and Solidarity, Opposes Two-Speed Europe

Brussels, March 9 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - Arriving in Brussels for the European Council meeting, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said he was going to spell out the clear Bulgarian position in support of the EU's fundamental values - unity and solidarity, and to oppose a two-speed Europe, consisting of a core and a periphery.

He told Bulgarian journalists that the principles and values on which the EU is based seemed to be giving way to bargaining.

The debate on Europe's future based on the new mechanisms proposed has only just begun, said Radev. "We are yet to discuss the Rome Declaration, and the debate on the White Paper of the European Commission has just started and will end in December with a decision which we are all expecting. Until then, we have to make a very thorough analysis, to act on the call of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that each Member State should have an analysis from its institutions, but should also reach out to all citizens. This is an important debate," he said.

The Bulgarian President also said that on February 23 he talked on the telephone with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of Malta, the current EU Council President. "I expressed firm support for Donald Tusk," Radev said, referring to the election of a new European Council President scheduled for Thursday.