NEWS

President Rosen Plevneliev will be patron of a discussion about the results Bulgaria has achieved, the lessons the country has drawn and the path it has taken 25 years after the beginning of the democratic changes in Bulgaria. This is what the Head of State said in Warsaw, where he took part in the 25th anniversary of the democratic changes in Central and Eastern Europe.

 

The President will hold a meeting with the Initiative Committee which Presidents Zhelyo Zhelev and Petar Stoyanov, famous dissidents, politicians and public figures are members of. In the Head of State’s words, the initiative will contribute to throwing light on and reconsidering the events that have unfolded in the past 25 years not only from a historical, but also from a human perspective. “We should know our history, we should be aware of what we managed and what we failed to do, where we started from and where we are heading toward,” Rosen Plevneliev told journalists in the Polish capital.

 

The President reiterated that Bulgaria has not fulfilled its dream for a “pure and sacred republic” yet and a lot more should be done. “We have achieved our strategic EU membership goals, although we are not equal to our European friends yet, we are members of a worthy family of European peoples. Bulgaria has gone halfway down the road, the solution is simple – we have set the direction we are heading in and specified what else still remains to be done. Brussels is not a corrective, it is a platform which allows us to reach the goal the citizens have set – to ensure a democratic society and a country which is a symbol of success in the region,” the Head of State said.

 

President Rosen Plevneliev said that the initiative launched by US President Barack Obama for encouraging the Euro-Atlantic cooperation with the Central and Eastern European countries in the context of the situation in Ukraine is timely. The Bulgarian President pointed out that the EU has pooled efforts to strengthen the partnership at an important moment and Bulgaria should be active. 

 

“We should be aware that the world is changing from a geopolitical viewpoint and that Europe is entering a new phase – pre and post Crimea,” the President commented. This will be the basic topic that the Head of State will focus on in the statement he will make in Warsaw.

 

State and government leaders of the Central and Eastern European countries are debating the basic aspects of the new European security strategy, which is expected to be worked out by the end of the year. The leaders will also exchange opinions about NATO’s more active presence in Central and Eastern Europe.

In the Polish capital President Rosen Plevneliev will attend the ceremony at which Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatars, will be given first Solidarity award. The events commemorating 25 years since the beginning of the democratic changes are attended by US President Barack Obama, the newly-elected President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and is hosted by the President of Poland Bronislav Komorovski.

 

The delegation led by the Bulgarian Head of State also includes Zhelyo Zhelev, former Bulgarian president (1990-1997).