Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio, who met with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, stressed that Italy supports Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area.

President Rumen Radev and Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio discussed bilateral cooperation and the health and social consequences of the Covid-19 crisis. This is the first visit by the Italian foreign minister to Bulgaria, and it comes at a time of difficult negotiation among the EU member countries on the new EU multinannual financial framework and the recovery fund, amounting to EU 750 billion. Italy was one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic and a critic of Brussels. Now it is insisting that the European support take the form of grants, and is looking for more allies in the dispute over the recovery funding, between the countries of southern Europe, headed by Italy, and the “frugal four” – Denmark, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands.