site.btaUPDATED Bulgarian MEPs Share with BTA Their Priorities, Expectations

In interviews for the BTA special correspondents to Strasbourg for the European Parliament's (EP) first plenary session, the new Bulgarian MEPs shared their priorities and expectations. Some of their priorities include Schengen, the euro zone, healthcare, the fight against poverty, healthcare, enhanced support for Ukraine, the European integration of the Western Balkans and reviving the European economy.  Following are highlights of BTA's interviews. 

MEP Andrey Kovatchev (GERB/European People’s Party) said work is underway to get Bulgaria into Schengen by land by the end of the year. "It is very important what signals are coming from Bulgaria, whether we will be able to elect a predictable, stable government that will be able to build trust between the relevant ministries, especially the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice. With the help of EP and the European Commission, with the vast majority of the Council, we hope to convince our colleagues after the elections in Austria that this is also in their interest and will increase and not decrease the security of the Schengen area," Kovatchev said. He was elected Wednesday as one of the five new quaestors of the European Parliament. Kovatchev will be the only Bulgarian in the EP leadership this session.

MEP Andrey Novakov (GERB/European People's Party) expressed hope that the Bulgarian MEPs won't transfer to the EP the tension from the national parliament. "This is not a place where such relations thrive. Very often we have to vote on decisions that are important for Bulgaria and just because in our country one's parliamentary group has a conflict with another group does not mean that one should bring it here. We have some very good examples in this direction in the last two mandates: the rose oil, Schengen, the euro area, the Mobility Package. These are all things that all 17 of us have stood behind, solidly, and have achieved success. I sincerely believe that this will continue in the future and the new colleagues will quickly shake off the habits from Bulgaria", said Novakov. He expressed the opinion that if Bulgaria has a regular government, it can realistically expect to join Schengen by land in 2025. 

MEP Elena Yoncheva (Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF)/Renew Europe) commented Thursday's re-election of Ursula von der Leyen as head of the European Commission and her future work in the European Parliament, Bulgaria's Schengen accession, the migration pact, among other issues on the international and domestic agenda. "We see that different mechanisms are being applied by the Commission to other countries on other issues, and these mechanisms are not being applied to countries such as Austria, which are stopping us for Schengen, and in fact this is what I spoke about today with Mrs Von der Leyen, of course, very briefly, and she promised an additional meeting where we can now discuss directly concrete proposals and see how we can work together on this topic. 

MEP Emil Radev (GERB/European People's Party) said the re-elected EP President, Roberta Metsola is "a good friend of Bulgaria". "Mrs Metsola is a unifier. We have seen that she received a huge number of votes from all political families. Bulgaria has always counted on her and she has proved it in the last two mandates that she always supports Bulgaria. Both on its way to Schengen, and in its battles to secure its external border, and in the battles for the rose oil. So this is a good sign", Radev said. Asked if he sees a risk for Bulgaria's entry in Schengen for land travel to be shelved over the political instability in Bulgaria, Radev said that "everything depends on whether there is someone to defend the Bulgarian position at the government level".  "Our partners in the Council want to talk to a prime minister or a government that has a horizon of more than two months," he noted.

MEP Eva Maydell (GERB-European People's Party) told BTA that if "We have a stable government with clear goals, we can use not only the contacts but also the influence we have to put Bulgaria on the map of technology companies. She commented on the future of the EU, the interaction with other Bulgarian MEPs and the political situation in Bulgaria. According to her, the last three years have not helped Bulgaria to defend its European goals and priorities. "If we did not have this political instability and the inability to have political dialogue in any form, today we would be members of the euro area, a full member of Schengen - as Croatia is," she said. 

MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Movement for Rights and Freedoms/Renew Europe) listed the enlargement policy, economy, energy, competitiveness, and security as important topics for the 10th European Parliament. This is his third term in office as MEP. "It was an important time when Bulgarian diplomacy set the agenda on how to resolve the inter-ethnic conflicts in the Balkans. We have lost that authority, we need to regain it," he argued. "Our national priority must be to have the countries of the Western Balkans as part of the European Union and make sure their connection with the European Union goes through Sofia," he commented. Asked about North Macedonia, in particular, he said what will happen depends on the processes in that country. "One thing is clear, the French proposal, which is essentially a European document, is a success for both diplomacies," he told BTA.

MEP Ilia Lazarov (GERB/European People's Party) said that Europe must progress towards federalization. He noted that federalization should be pursued in areas such as foreign policy, security services, and defence, adding that in today's globalized world, Europe needs to present a unified front. "Currently, we are witnessing a discordance between countries, such as Hungary, which negatively impacts our standing in the world market and foreign policy. This is equally true when speaking of security. The major challenge, beyond existing conflicts, is terrorism. The 21st century will be fraught with terrorism-related issues. The only effective countermeasure is anticipatory information," he argued.

MEP Ivaylo Valchev (There Is Such a People/European Conservatives and Reformists) told BTA that Europe is limiting itself by creating countless regulations. “The difference between the Bulgarian National Assembly and the European Parliament is that our work in Bulgaria had a much more direct resonance, while what happens in this chamber does not become part of reality as quickly,” Valchev noted. “One of my personal causes and goals is to have a much better communication between the members of the Bulgarian delegation. It will be important for me, even if we have party differences, to be able to talk together about the things that are important first of all for our country. Let us try to clear them up among ourselves. Not to be so loyal to the politics of the groups that we are members of, but to come first from what the national interest dictates,”  Valchev said.

MEP Kristian Vigenin, (Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)/Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) said: "We must strive to demonstrate that EU institutions are actively addressing people's fundamental problems and meeting their expectations." His priorities are focused on other key social issues, including poverty eradication, reducing inequalities, and ensuring equal income and opportunities across member states. Health improvement also remains a central point. "With over half of the Members being new and the introduction of two new political groups, the next five years promise to be more challenging. However, this change presents an opportunity to focus on addressing specific public issues. As the only directly elected EU institution, it's crucial that we are driven by the people's agenda, not our own," he argued.

MEP Nikola Minchev (Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria/Renew Europe) said regarding Euroscepticism and its strong representation in the new European Parliament that “we need to understand the reasons that make people turn to the parties in the far-right spectrum”. "Obviously their policies and proposals find some support from the people. We need to be aware of the reasons that are leading to this stronger result and what we can do - the European People’s Party, Socialist and Democrats, and Renew Europe - to address people's fears," he said. Minchev, who was MP in several Bulgarian parliaments and is a former National Assembly chair, is MEP for the first time. One of his priorities, which he announced during the election campaign, is the rule of law. Minchev will be a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), where the rule of law will be one of the main topics of work. He will also be a member of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, where he said there is an opportunity to work on issues related to the access of Bulgarian citizens and Bulgarian businesses to EU’s internal market.

MEP Petar Volgin (Vazrazhdane/Europe of Sovereign Nations) told BTA that this European Union has no independent policy, no independent vision for the future. He was one of the people who did not stand up when the Anthem of Europe was played. "Because there is no European anthem. Only a country can have an anthem, such as Bulgaria or every other country. The European Union is not a country, although there are probably people who would like it to be a supranational institution that tells everyone else what to do. Ode to Joy is a magnificent tune, but it is by no means an anthem. Standing up seems comical and meaningless to me," Volgin said. "This is scepticism about the path the European Union has taken. It [the EU] is something very different from Europe. The idea of a united Europe is wonderful. This idea wants to show that individual nations can work together. With respect for each other's traditions, culture and history. They can do things together and not become voiceless pawns in the current geopolitical game," he added.

MEP Rada Laykova (Vazrazhdane/Europe of Sovereign Nations) said that the Bulgarian public had been denied the opportunity to have their say in a referendum on keeping the Bulgarian lev so the issue will raised at the EU level. Laykova added that it will soon be addressed on behalf of the new group in the European Parliament she is part of. She said that her group's main task will be to show the public what is really happening in the European Parliament. She stressed that Vazrazhdane is among the founders of the newly-founded Europe of Sovereign Nations group, which they are part of, adding that the party had been working on establishing a new, truly conservative group in the European PArliament since last year, when they began a series of bilateral talks with their European parthers.

MEP Radan Kanev (Democrats for Strong Bulgaria/European People's Party) said that it is important for Bulgarian citizens Bulgaria to be an active participant in European legislation. "Our work here is not diplomatic. We are not representing the country with some representative functions, to show how nice or well-dressed we are, but we are doing very heavy day-to-day legislative work, which requires systematic negotiations, forming different coalitions at party and national level," he said. “Look where we have come to - something I warned about repeatedly when we saw the formula cracking before the rotation of the previous administration. We are now the only one of the 27 countries that is not involved in the debate on what happens to Europe from now on. We are not talking about who the Bulgarian Commissioner will be, what portfolio for this commissioner we will fight for, in the name of what priorities we will support or not support a given personnel decision,” the MEP commented on the political situation in Bulgaria.

MEP Stanislav Stoyanov (Vazrazhdane/Europe of Sovereign Nations) told BTA that the group outside the cordon sanitaire is becoming more and more visible. "There are three groups, including ours, Europe of Sovereign Nations, which we established, as well as the European Conservatives and Reformists and the Patriots for Europe, the new group which is now part of the European Parliament," he added. In his words, the priorities of Vazrazhdane in this Parliament will be to start solving people's problems. "They should be heard better because now the policies imposed by the European institutions do not meet the needs of the ordinary European citizen. They serve lobbyists. There is a huge number of officially registered lobbyists. There are probably also unofficial lobbyists doing their work through other channels," the MEP said.

MEP Taner Kabilov (Movement for Rights and Freedoms/Renew Europe) said that the atmosphere at the EP is seemingly calm. "Of course, some votes passed with clear majorities, certain political lines were followed and so on. EP bodies are beginning to be formed. So I would say it is a seemingly calm atmosphere. But we will definitely watch going forward how it develops, because the vote of the European citizens itself has shown within this Parliament how the powers are distributed." He identified Bulgaria's full-fledged accession to the Schengen area and the eurozone as a main priority. He outlined regional development and transport as his top "personal" priorities. Kabilov noted that, reflecting the positions of Renew Europe and MRF, the MEPs will work for a more secure and competitive European Union and a better developed democracy. He added that the latter cannot happen "without absolute categorical help for Ukraine" as "it is clear who is the aggressor and who is the victim".

MEP Tsvetelina Penkova (BSP/Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) said the Green Deal should become Europe's new industrial deal. "We must use everything to be able to revive European industry," she said. One of the last pieces of legislation Penkova worked on in her first term in the European Parliament was on re-industrialization of Europe. "What we have done so far needs to be translated into a working economy," she said. On Tuesday, Penkova was elected unanimously President of the European Energy Forum. "I think this is a wonderful portfolio that we have many reasons to want to fight for," she argued, adding that Bulgaria is in an excellent position to ask for the energy portfolio.

BTA could not reach MEP Hristo Petrov (CC-DB/Renew Europe) for an interview.