The President met the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva and the Neighbourhood and Enlargement EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi

EU enlargement should be based on achieving sustainable results in building good-neighbourly relations in the Balkans and this must be an irreversible process in the future, declared Head of State, Mr. Rumen Radev, who met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva and the Neighbourhood and Enlargement EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi today at the Presidency. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Svetlan Stoev also participated in the meeting.

The possible approaches for accelerating the process of European integration of the countries in the Western Balkans were the focal point of the discussion.

Mr. Rumen Radev emphasised the impressive progress on the European Agenda achieved within the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union and pointed out the efforts of European institutions for even closer integration of the Western Balkans into a United Europe. Bulgaria is a responsible EU Member State and will continue supporting the EU accession candidates to meet the Copenhagen Criteria for Membership and to strengthen the principles of good-neighbourliness and respecting human rights which lie at the heart of European cooperation, the President stated.

“The European perspective of the Western Balkans and EU enlargement are an undoubted priority for Bulgaria,” the Head of State further affirmed and added that a direct and open dialogue is most important for achieving effective results for countries applying for EU membership. “Therefore, we want to see not declarations, but clear guarantees for our national security and our national interests,” Mr. Rumen Radev further indicated.

The excellent bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Portugal were also underlined during the meeting, proven by the upcoming visit of the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to Bulgaria in June.