site.btaPresident Radev Comments on Migration, North Macedonia, Russia

October 22 (BTA) - President Rumen Radev told Bulgarian journalists here Friday that at the European Council meeting on October 21 and 22, he and counterparts of his raised the matter of the protection of the EU's external borders, particularly land ones. "The EU needs an action plan in case of sharp migration pressure. I hope that will happen at a next sage," he said.

Radev added that on Thursday and Friday he talked several times with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the issue with the Republic of North Macedonia. In his words, she has accepted as a personal cause that Bulgaria must open the door to North Macedonia's EU integration this year. The decisive meeting is in December, Radev specified.

He described Merkel as one of the "pillars of the EU" when commenting on her retirement.

The Bulgarian head of State described as a sensitive topic the issue with Poland, whose constitutional court does not acknowledge the EU law's primacy over national law. The EU leaders talked about this issue positively and constructively, Radev noted. He argued that this political debate will not generate results: legal arguments are necessary, and these are expected from the EU Court of Justice. "We should formulate clearly the instruments with which this dispute will be solved: dialogue, political will, legal arguments. If we involve one more instrument - a fiscal one - to influence such countries by refusing to accept their national recovery and resilience plans, that would blow up the otherwise fragile accord," Radev said.

Commenting on NATO-Russia relations, the Bulgarian President recommended that the dialogue with Russia continue. "We are heading in a direction from which neither of the countries benefits. If we look at the situation in the Balkans, at what is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at Republika Srpska's request, at all processes in the region and on a global scale, we will see that we cannot possibly go on without this dialogue. Confrontation is not in our interest," Radev told reporters. VE/DS