site.btaSocialists: "Bulgarian MEPs who Voted in Favour of CETA Are National Traitors"; GERB: "CETA Is Bulgaria's Largest Achievement in 25 Years"

Socialists: "Bulgarian MEPs who Voted in Favour of CETA Are National Traitors"; GERB: "CETA Is Bulgaria's Largest Achievement in 25 Years"

Sofia, February 15 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) wants to see the list of the Bulgarian Members of the European Parliament who Wednesday voted in favour of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The deal was approved by the European Parliament, 408-254 with 33 abstentions.

Speaking at a news conference, BSP Chair Kornelia Ninova said that her party wants to see a list of the names of the Bulgarian MEPs who supported CETA, branding them as "national traitors". Ninova said that she was speaking not just on behalf of the BSP but also for the Made in Bulgaria Union, trade unions and dozens of NGOs.

The Socialist leader asked "who of the Bulgarian people had authorized the MEPs to vote in favour of CETA". She said that if the BSP has enough MPs in the next Parliament, it will block CETA's ratification. In her words, the agreement "opens the door to uncontrolled import of GMO products and of Canadian meat, thus killing Bulgarian producers".

Ninova detailed the problems and threats that her party sees in CETA.

She said that BSP's MEPs voted against CETA, as had been agreed in an express decision of the party's National Council.

It transpired earlier on Wednesday that Party of European Socialists (PES) President and former BSP leader Sergei Stanishev, now a Member of the European Parliament, had voted in favour of CETA. Stanishev wrote in a Facebook post later in the day that the Bulgarian Socialists delegation in the European Parliament voted unanimously against CETA, explaining that a technical error occurred with one of the votings. Measures were taken to correct the error, and the correction will be reflected in the final minutes of the voting.

"Bulgaria made the most out of the CETA ratification: the waiver of Canadian visas," Youth GERB Chairman Georg Georgiev commented at a news conference in the GERB Party headquarters.

He recalled that, on behalf of the Bulgarian Government, then Prime Minister Boyko Borissov declared that CETA would be ratified if Canada waives its visa requirements for Bulgarian nationals.

"Bulgaria agreed to ratify the Agreement, and Canada agreed to scrap visas for Bulgarian nationals, effective December 1, 2017," Georgiev pointed out. He described this as "one of this country's largest international achievements over the last 25 years".

In his opinion, "if the BSP does not acknowledge this asset for our country, it means that it does not realize what national interest is all about."

Both the European People's Party and the Bulgarian GERB MEPs voted in favour of CETA, said Dessislava Atanassova.

The party displayed a printout from the European Parliament website which shows that PES President Sergei Stanishev, Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats President Gianni Pittella and a large part of that political group in the EP backed the Agreement.

GERB cannot imagine that an experienced politician like Stanishev could make such a technical error in the voting.