SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS

Lecture of President Rosen Plevneliev "Southeast Europe: The Road Forward"

My Lords and Members of the House of Common,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at one of the most respected global organizations specialized in the study and better public understanding of international affairs.

As most of you are well aware, the Balkans have been an arena of hostilities, tensions and wars. One hundred years ago, a shot fired in Saraevo triggered the First World War. To the best of my knowledge, it is that carnage, inter alia, which motivated some of the best and brightest minds in London to establish a prestigious academic institution like the Royal Institute of International affairs in an effort to rethink war and find ways to prevent the wars in the future.

Today, South Eastern Europe is on the right track towards stable peace and gradually increasing prosperity. The launch of this change would have been impossible during the Cold War. Twenty-five years ago the Military doctrine of the Bulgarian Communist regime identified Greece, Turkey, the UK, the USA as the biggest threat to my country. When I was in the army, I was told every day: “Soldier, remember well: Greece, Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom are our worst enemies”. I was told, I was trained and brainwashed like this. I’m so proud that today just 25 years after the Communist regime collapsed Bulgaria and the UK are trusted friends. We’re   partners and allies. We became part of the family of common values. Greece and Turkey are good neighbors and allies too. Ten days ago Prof. Davutoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, was my guest. He then recognized that ten years ago when he started his very ambitious ”Zero problem policy” of Turkey, there is one neighboring country with which Turkey has zero problems, and that is Bulgaria. And we are very proud that Bulgarian relationships with Turkey, with Romania and Serbia have never been better. I hope that after we soon sign a Treaty of Good-neighborliness with the Republic of Macedonia relations between the two governments will be on the same level as those between the citizens of the two countries.

May I also use the occasion to inform you that, in a spirit of remembrance, the countries from South Eastern Europe plan to mark together this year the hundred anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, which is a historic shift towards reconciliation and enlightened European approach to history. In the same spirit I will welcome in the early April in Sofia His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent with whom we will commemorate the British soldiers who fell a century ago on Bulgarian soil. We will set a new trend in the region of reconciliation, honest approach to history.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My partners often ask me: What is the recipe for the ultimate success of your region? What is the basic reason for this remarkable transformation on the Balkans in the wake of the Yugoslav crisis? Has it been thanks to one or two visionaries? Who are they? Or was it because of the peoples of these countries?

In my view, it is primarily the will by the peoples in the region for effective institutions and fair market economy which has fuelled democratic change and the increasing economic interdependences between the countries in the region. The expertise and assistance by leading European nations, including the United Kingdom, and by the United States have also played a crucial role in the consolidation of our democratic institutions, in the proper functioning of our market economies, in the provision of international guarantees for our national security. And actually the engine of Euro-Atlantic integration works in the Balkans and changes the Balkans. Of course, the nominal membership of NATO and the EU should not create a false sense of security since recent dynamics in the East of the Continent could quickly change and put to question democratic achievements in Central and Eastern Europe. Only through active Euro Atlantic partnership can the region defend against the threat of anti-democratic reversal. We need more active European engagement in our region. We need more visible presence of NATO in Southeast Europe.

The next stage of our road forward should be underpinned by the achievement of two priorities.

First, further and deeper integration into Euro-Atlantic structures.

All the states in the region, having fulfilled the membership criteria, should join the NATO. Current members should actively participate in all NATO initiatives such as Smart Defense, NATO Connected Forces 2020 and the Framework Nation Initiative. All states must have a clear perspective for EU membership as well.

The issue of EU enlargement should come back on our agenda more seriously against the background of the events in Ukraine. South Eastern Europe needs more of the soft power projected by the European Union. Special mention should be made of the success of the EU and of its High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy baroness Ashton in facilitating the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina which was a historical achievement and is a fruitful result of the vision which has started here in London but also in Brussels and many European capitals about solving problems at the Balkans. Any failure of any part of the EU for deeper involvement in the Balkans may make the countries from that region additionally vulnerable to unfavorable external influences from factors outside the Euro-Atlantic community.

Current member states should use the EU single market the eventual Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the United States in order to integrate steadily into major European and US economic clusters.

Second major priority – and that’s my passion, the better promotion of our regional identity and the regional approach.

From an European perspective we are in the periphery of the continent, but if you look at Europe and Asia taken together, we are right in the middle. We have always been strategically positioned, a crossroad of civilizations. For example, UNESCO statistics prove that Bulgaria is the fifth richest country in Europe in terms of historical monuments, with Thracians, Romans, Byzantinians, Ottoman, Russians and many other cultures having left their impressive legacy there.

South Eastern Europe should enlarge its physical regional links and infrastructure. We are striving to achieve adequate synergies. In the aftermath of the economic crisis and given the limitations of our resources, regional cooperation becomes even more acutely important. The more connected we are, the more investors come to our region. The more companies come to our region, the faster we move down the road to sustainable development and prosperity. Let me give another telling example from the region. For a long time Bulgaria and Romania have been competing, trying to secure investments in our respective automotive sectors. Now the big factories of Ford and Renault went to Romania. But Bulgaria is happy, too, because ten factories of sub suppliers moved to the other side of the border. So, we have understood that we’ve created true cooperation and a regional cluster. And now we see some other regional clusters emerging in the region. Some of them are tourism, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, human health industries, food production, energy and other services. In South-Eastern Europe, we share the same clusters, same banks, same insurers, same Telecom operators, same gas suppliers. We have already invested a great deal of time and efforts to position ourselves jointly in the global market as part of global supply chains. Most of the trans-European corridors pass through our region which also helps in the first stage of what we call the Third Industrial Revolution.

Underpinning it all however should be trust and good inter-personal communication. One of my main aims during my frequent travels in Southeast Europe is to develop a network of contacts who are representative of the interests uniting twelve states with a total population of one hundred and fifty million people the virtual boundaries among which are no longer separating them. If you ask previous presidents of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro: “how often did you speak, how often did you meet”, they will answer one or twice in a term. But today we meet once in three or four months. We meet, we talk, we communicate, we share and we work together and that’s great.

Dear friends,

The world is moving from mass production of standardized items to made-to-order products for individual needs. Everything will be customized – your phone, your car, your medicine. You know well of course the British Icon - Mini Cooper. Some of you might be surprised to learn that the leather seats for the future models of Mini Cooper will be produced in Bulgaria. Every seat will be customized.
Customization will transform the global economy, and provides new opportunities for both the developing and the developed world. There is something very special and that is a market segment and a huge niche for Southeast Europe to emerge as an economic location. That’s the way we find also huge opportunities and we need again a regional approach on education, on customs, on networking and infrastructure and on business environment – only as a region, together. South Eastern Europe boasts one of the best educational potentials in terms of intelligence coefficient, talent, creativity, language skills and diversity. As President of Bulgaria, I am pushing for educational reform in my country. We are starting the first innovation eco systems, and as a result Google and MIT are among those willing to participate.

Dear friends,

In the past 25 years the biggest achievement of Southeast Europe is the steady return to the path of democracy and European values. However our region is in immediate proximity to the Eastern neighborhood of the European Union. One important friendly country in that neighborhood is Ukraine.
In my view, one of the fundamental reasons for the current Ukrainian crisis could be traced in the differences in the post-Soviet development of, say, Poland or any other of the Visegrad countries, on the one hand, and Ukraine, on the other. When in 2012 thousands of Urkanians visited Poland during the football championship they saw a neighboring country which was quite different from their own - modern, dynamic, forward looking and human.

Even though potentially richer in natural resources than some of them, Ukraine had sustained of an economy dominated by oligarchs, corruption, dependent judiciary and controlled media. Ukraine kept over the last decades the Russian economic model, while the Visegrad countries implemented brave reforms in promoting competition, regulating monopolies, ensuring transparent public tenders and strengthening democratic institutions. As a result a new, educated, strong middle class emerged in those countries building democratic and prosperous states.

The countries of South-Eastern Europe share, sadly enough, some of the negative characteristics of the Ukrainian model. Analyzing the situation in Ukraine we have to draw lessons regarding our own roadmaps towards overcoming problems such as the neglect of the rule of law: the existence of oligarchs; the excessive concentration of media ownership; the degree of corruption; the opaque governance and behind-the-scene decision-making. That’s happening in my country. That’s happening in my region. And last but not least, extreme nationalism whose manifestations we see today in Crimea and in Eastern Ukraine but also in many parts of South Eastern Europe and all over Europe should be addressed. The French president De Gaulle once said “Patriots are those who love their country, nationalists are those who hate the different.” We must stand against extreme nationalism thorough the means of modern patriotism telling the truth about the past to the younger generation, sharing, linking, integrating. History should be used as a foundation of modern non-aggressive statehood. The past is a bridge to the future. It should not be manipulated for the sake of violent domination.

One of the potent tools against again the above phenomena is the enlargement and strength of civil society. For more than a year now civil society in my country has been organizing waves of spontaneous protests, demanding a change in the way our economy and democracy works. It has become one of the influential agenda-setters for politicians and businesses in the country. A nation’s democratic consolidation needs to be aided by building stronger civil society networks – watchdogs, think tanks, campaign groups. Twenty–four years of transition have taught us that simply having democratic party-system, putting all the laws and institutions in place, is not enough to create long-term democratic stability. You need to fight for democracy every day. It’s not given for granted. Today we learned that if you’re a member state of the Club of the Riches, you prosperity is not guaranteed – you have to produce it. If you’re a member of NATO, security is not given for free. You need to work hard. We strongly believe that only investments in longer term pillars of democracy can really bring maturity to the democracies of the region. Rule of law, independent and objective media; competitive market economy; independent and effective public institutions; a comprehensive E-government and open government policies; proper media regulation, administrative reform to standardize public procurement and make it 100% open and transparent. The attainment of all these goals is impossible without the pressure of a wide-ranging and competent civil society. And that is what I’m so much proud of – in the region of SEE we have a vibrant, democratic, willing and active civil society. I’m proud of the Ukrainian people, of the Maydan. Some say they are fascists but they’re fighting for democracy, for the rule of law, for market economy and they showed a clear signal to the political elite which is the right direction. And I hope that they would be listened and their direction will be followed.

Of course, the Ukrainian crisis has not been just generated by internal factors. Russia has been consistently pursuing a policy of restoring its sphere of influence in the post-Soviet space. We should have no illusions about the legacy of the Soviet Union, the KGB and the communist totalitarian state, about its repercussions on Ukrainian territory. While the EU and the United State seek diplomatic solutions, Russia has already occupied and is about to formally annex Crimea next days using as a pretext the results of an illegal local referendum. Therefore, the conflict in Ukraine is very dangerous and has long-term implications.

The only lasting solution is through a peaceful political process which guarantees the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country in accordance with international law which prohibits armed invasions in sovereign states. In May there will be presidential elections and the Ukrainian people should be able to choose their own path. We cannot let non-European factors to return us to the years of the Cold War. The international community must make the necessary efforts to guarantee the integrity of Ukraine’s territory and the pro-European democratic orientation of the country.

Dear friends,

We see and draw our lessons. We believe that we have shared destiny and good prospects in a predictable and democratic wider geopolitical environment – I truly believe in this future for Southeast Europe. The recipe which I was from so many presidents from the Middle-East, in Northern Africa, in South-East Asia, seems clear and brings first positive results. The Balkan countries are already interconnected and interdependent. Every nation from the region and its leaders should continue to be committed to our common journey to European prosperity.

The word “Balkans“ comes from Turkish and is derived from two semantic components: “honey” and “blood”. For centuries blood dominated the Balkans. Now the time has come for the honey.

Thank you very much!