By P. Bouliou
–Hello Mr. President and thank you for your time. We saw yesterday a common policy between Bulgaria and Hungary. With today’s conversations Bulgaria’s policy seemed to be different. Is this right?
“Bulgaria was from the beginning open to new suggestions and negotiations, given that our national interests are respected. Yesterday there was indeed a common ground between us and Hungary, though we are very different countries. It is true that we are willing to change our policy, if some certain things we ask are accomplished.”
-Which is going to be your new policy then and what are your conditions?
“Bulgaria stated in the beginning of the session and it is a fact since 2007 that we want to be included in the Schengen agreement. Many countries, like Germany, believe that we are not appropriately prepared to be members in this agreement, but as the Head of State of Bulgaria I assure you that we are. If the expansion of Schengen is achieved, we can change our immigration policy. Bulgaria has already risked her national sovereignty, by accepting refugees. What we are willing to do, if our suggestion will pass, is to create some hotspots for refugees. In this point I would like to stress that we are going to accept only legal refugees and maybe this is a difference between Bulgaria and other EU countries. What’s more, we are only capable to host them for a short time and then relocate them to other countries.”
-When you refer to legal refugees what do you mean? How are you going to control this?
“Our plan is to reinforce border controls; every refugee that would like to be hosted in Bulgaria should have the right to seek asylum. We are going to check their passports, their health condition, so as to prevent crises of epidemic diseases, their political and religious policy and if they were part of any military groups. Since Bulgaria is under a threat with the refugees that have already come we will host them in specific areas, until relocation is achievable. But as I said before, if we are not going to be members of Schengen Treaty our borders will be closed. We need to be united and tackle with the immigration problem, but the security of our nation is crucial.”
