site.btaVice President Iotova Deplores Security Council Meeting Was Not Better Prepared

Vice President Iliana Iotova deplored that Thursday's meeting of the Security Council with the Council of Ministers was not better prepared. She was talking to reporters in the town of Bankya near Sofia about the Security Council's emergency meeting called by Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov to discuss the risks of an immediate revocation of the exemption of the Lukoil Neftochim refinery in Burgas from an EU ban on the processing of Russian oil.

Iotova said the way the meeting took place raised doubts and mistrust over the Security Council. She commented that the meeting set "a serious precedent" as GERB Floor Leader Desislava Atanasova and Energy Committee Chairman Delyan Dobrev walked out. Movement for Rights and Freedoms Floor Leader Delyan Peevski followed suit later on.

This is evidence of a deep rift in the self-styled quasi-coalition, now on national security matters, Iotova said.

If Bulgaria is suspected of conducting a state policy of circumventing the sanctions, this will be yet another argument in the hands of the EU partners who are not particularly keen on this country's Schengen accession, she added.

Asked to comment on the two positions on the possible end of the derogation - by the year's end or on March 15 - Iotova said she had not heard convincing enough arguments for either case. "I do not even know why it should be March 15 and not March 1, or the end of 2023," she said.

Iotova commented on the 2024 Budget Bill, saying that she had not heard "a single self-respecting economist accept the Finance Minister's proposal". "We will see how this discussion goes. You know the President has the final say after the National Assembly adopts the bill," she added.

The Vice President opened the 15th Congress of the National Union of Worker Producers' Cooperatives in Bankya.