Bulgaria and Greece share a common responsibility for strengthening stability in Southeastern Europe and for the development of good-neighborly relations in our region. This was the common stance shared by the Presidents of Bulgaria and Greece, Rumen Radev and Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who held a meeting today in Riga within the XIV meeting of the Heads of State of the Arraiolos group.

The EU member states from the Balkans should be much more active when forming and preserving the focus on the whole process of European integration in the region, Rumen Radev and Prokopis Pavlopoulos emphasized. The fulfillment of the European prospects for the Balkan countries which have the ambition to ensure a full-fledged EU membership, is a process that requires not only support from outside, but also a clear political will and real reforms conducted by our neighbors, so that they can meet the membership criteria, it further emerged at the meeting. Rumen Radev was adamant that fragmentation of the region should be avoided even when tension arises between individual countries in Southeastern Europe.

Both Rumen Radev and Prokopis Pavlopoulos highlighted the positive trend of increasing the trade between Bulgaria and Greece, which exceeded 3 billion euros in 2017. In the two Presidents’ words, the development of the infrastructure and tourism that connects the two countries is a factor ensuring a follow-up increase of mutual investments. In President Radev’s opinion, the encouraging signs of recovery of the Greek economy after the financial crisis in the country will promote not only bilateral trade, but also the economic exchange in the region.