Bulgaria was first visited by Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos in the beginning of the week, followed by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The events coincided with important for the EU decisions – the preparation of eventual receiving of Syrian refugees, accommodated in Turkey on the territory of 8 European countries, a summit on migration issues and border control, the enlivening of the processes for European integration of the Balkans via the renewal of Turkey’s EU accession negotiations and the start of those for Serbia.

The Sofia dialogue couldn’t be far away from this agenda of Europe and its hosting can be probably explained by the fact that now Bulgaria is involved under this agenda, being the rotational chair of the South-East European Cooperation Process.

In his talks with the Greek President his Bulgarian counterpart Rossen Plevneliev defended the thesis that the migration crisis was a common problem and that not only Italy and Greece should have hot spots for registration and distribution of refugees, but also some of the Balkan countries that transit refugees towards West and North Europe. The two politicians agreed on the necessity of clear rules, complied with by everyone within the EU, in order for the issue to see no further tension in terms of relations. The integration of even more Balkan states in the EU was supported, but under the condition that the interested countries should respond to certain requirements. It was once again said in this context that Macedonia should respect the good neighboring principle and the one, saying that historical facts should not be manipulated. The Greek party demanded Turkey’s respect for European economic and political realities, adhering to the international law, as far as open issues were concerned.

The talks with both the Greek President and the Turkish Premier discussed the enhancing of the security services’ cooperation. Successful cooperation was marked in this sphere in both the bilateral and regional aspect, including a real effect from the implementation of the recent agreement for police and customs cooperation between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. It became clear after the talks with PM Davutoğlu that the interior ministers of both states planned joint operations against human traffickers. On the other hand, the stance of the three countries on the EC idea for a centralized land and coast guard service along the EU external borders remained vague. The idea is a new structure with the commission, different from Frontex to guard respective segments, where the national authorities fail to cope with their duties. This is the current case with Greece, regarding the migration pressure from Turkey and towards the border with Macedonia. The subject was probably dropped due to the fact that the idea must be first approved by the EP and the member-states’ governments.

During the Sofia-held talks the EP discussed problems of diversification and security of energy supplies, as well as the need of a revision of the acting legislation for energy effectiveness and also of the optimal usage of the national and cross-border energy infrastructure. Bulgaria and Greece confirmed their joint participation in the implementation of the North–South gas corridor, along with the establishment of a SEE energy exchange. The presidents did hail the progress of the project for interconnectors between the national gas pipeline grids, which will connect Bulgaria to the Southern Gas Corridor and the liquefied gas terminals in the Mediterranean Sea. The talks with the Turkish side also tackled the linking of the gas pipeline systems of Bulgaria and Turkey. The interconnectors have been on the agenda for 7 years now, but the Turkish project has lagged behind significantly and now even its mentioning itself causes optimism. The promise of the Turkish side for the recent linking of Sofia and Istanbul with a high-speed railway project was also optimistic, but it should be all moderate, taking into consideration the current situation in the region. PM Borissov gave an example of it, commenting that major projects were forthcoming, but those could not happen if the states’ relations were bad. Thus he appealed at once for the normalization of the relations between Turkey and Russia.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev