site.bta PM Borissov Meets with Serbian and Romanian Counterparts Vucic and Ponta

PM Borissov Meets with Serbian and Romanian Counterparts Vucic and Ponta

Craiova, April 24 (BTA special correspondent Genka Ivanova) -
Prime Ministers Boyko Borissov of  Bulgaria, Aleksandar Vucic of
 Serbia and Victor Ponta of Romania held a trilateral meeting in
 Craiova, Romania, on Friday.

Bulgaria and Romania stand firmly behind Serbia and support  its
 EU accession, Borissov and Ponta said after the meeting. The
three prime ministers styled themselves "the Craiova Group".
Ponta stressed they would work for the prosperity of the three
countries.

Ponta said: "I would like us to lay the foundations of
cooperation between Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia in Craiova
today and to become 'the Craiova Group'. We are not joining
hands against anyone; we are uniting to promote the shared
interests of the countries." The past has been put to rest where
 it belongs - in the past, he added. "Now we have common
interests and together we can be much stronger," said Ponta. The
 Group will be open to the countries of the region: the Western
Balkans, Moldova, Hungary, etc.

Bulgaria's Boyko Borissov said: "My dream is to see a motorway
linking Bucharest, Sofia and Belgrade." Borissov and Ponta
considered the possibility of closing the
Bucharest-Rousse-Sofia-Belgrade circle. There is the Strouma
Motorway on the other side, said Borissov, adding that a
regional ring could be created, making it possible to travel to
Thessaloniki (Greece) and Bourgas (on the Bulgarian Black Sea
coast), and to the Bosphorus via the Maritsa Motorway. At the
same time, work is under way on high-speed trains. Brussels
promotes connectivity in Europe most of all and the three
countries have a chance to stand up for their interests together
 and to implement these projects because "first, they are good
for us, and second, they are good for the whole of Europe". 

Regarding Bulgaria's support for Serbia's EU membership,
Borissov said it would be odd if Serbia was not an EU member,
adding that he hoped this would become a fact within five years.
 

Borissov invited his counterparts to hold their next meeting in
Varna.
 
Bulgaria and Romania stand foursquare behind Serbia and support
 its accession to the EU, Borissov wrote on Facebook. "We have a
 shared interest to see this happen quickly. Together we are
stronger and we should unite, make joint political decisions and
 issue declarations on subjects important for our countries:
energy, gas infrastructure and transport.

"We should jointly finance major infrastructure projects and
pool our efforts to open the three countries' roads. I outlined
my ideas to my counterparts and told them that if we are 
active,  if we work and show real results as a group, other 
Balkan  countries too will join us."

Serbia's Aleksandar Vucic said the motorway from Belgrade
through Nis to the Serbian-Bulgarian border would be completed
by 2016.

At a bilateral meeting, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister for
European Policy and Institutional Affairs Meglena Kuneva and
Romanian Justice Minister Robert Cazanciuc agreed that their
countries would pool their efforts to enter the Schengen area,
the government information service said.

Kuneva commented at the meeting: "The region's voice should be
stronger because in the EU we can achieve common goals more
easily together." The two agreed that Bulgaria and Romania
should focus their efforts on the EU Member States which still
have reservations about their Schengen entry and on lobbying for
 each other.

Kuneva and Cazanciuc also discussed the Cooperation and
Verification Mechanism (used by the European Commission to
monitor the two countries' progress in justice and the fight
against corruption. Kuneva said that an EC mission would be in
Sofia next week.

Kuneva briefed Cazanciuc on the constitutional amendments
concerning the judicial reform and the single corruption body.
The Romanian Justice Minister presented two new anti-corruption
bills. The two officials discussed possible ways to exchange
experience in anti-corruption policies.