site.btaVice President Margarita Popova Calls for Legal Framework to Regulate Social Status of Bulgarians in Spain

Vice President Margarita Popova Calls for Legal Framework to Regulate Social Status of Bulgarians
in Spain


Madrid, April 16 (BTA) - On the last day of her working visit to
Spain, Bulgarian Vice President Margarita Popova was in Madrid,
the President's Press Secretariat said.

Popova talked with Congress of Deputies President Jesus Maria
Posada Moreno, with Senate President Pio Garcia-Escudero
Marquez, and with Marina del Corral Tellez, Secretary General
for Immigration and Emigration at the Employment and Social
Security Ministry.

Talking with Tellez, Popova stressed that by the year's end
Bulgaria and Spain would sign a Memorandum of Social Cooperation
and an Agreement on Cultural Cooperation. "It is very important
to achieve a clear and stable legal framework regulating the
social status of Bulgarians in Spain, who already number around
300,000," Popova said. Tellez expressed support for the
Bulgarians working or studying in Spain, whose economic
contribution benefits both countries.

At the Congress of Deputies Popova was welcomed by the members
of the lower chamber. Meeting with Jesus Posada, Popova
emphasized the positive influence of the model of the Spanish
Constitution on the drafting of Bulgaria's Basic Law and the
constitutional provisions about the presidential institution,
and on the introduction of the Ombudsman. "The model of the
Supreme Judicial Council and of the National Institute of
Justice was created in close cooperation with Spanish jurists,"
said Popova.

At her other meetings in Madrid, the Vice President discussed
the setting up of a Bulgarian cultural centre in Spain and the
provision of a site for a Bulgarian church in Madrid. Popova
said these matters were extremely important for the Bulgarians
in Spain, and expressed hope that its institutions would be
cooperative. She thanked her hosts for the opportunity Spain
gives Bulgarians to become "successfully integrated in Spanish
society, working and studying, and to keep their identity" while
learning about Spain's culture and traditions.

Popova also met with representatives of the Bulgarian community
in Spain. The issues they raised had to do with Bulgarian
associations, citizenship, studying Bulgarian in the Sunday
schools, legal aid for disadvantaged people, social security
problems and voting abroad. The expat community stressed the
need of a Bulgarian cultural institute modelled on Instituto
Cervantes.