Sept. 13
BULGARIA:
On the sidelines of a 2-day informal meeting in Maastricht of the foreign
ministers of European Union member and candidate states, Bulgaria's
Solomon Passi sought to push his message on his country's EU accession and
other regional issues.
The main items on the agenda of the meeting included the problematic
security situation in Iraq, terrorist acts in Russia, violence
respectively in Israel and Afghanistan, the Sudan situation, and the
question of Serbia-Montenegro's potential EU accession, as well as the
future of Kosovo.
A decision of relevance to Bulgaria as a neighbouring country was the
decision by EU officials that Serbia-Montenegro needs to approach European
integration as a unified country, and a statement by the foreign ministers
giving an assurance to Serbia that elements of its proposed
decentralisation plan will be incorporated in the final plan for
decentralising the Kosovo government.
The ministers' meeting was dominated by the news from Russia about the
series of recent terrorist attacks. The EU has been sharply critical of
Russia for human rights violations in Chechnya, and its statements from
Maastricht led Moscow to demand clarifications, particularly after Russian
president Vladimir Putin emphasised his hard line against terrorists and
continued his international campaign for solidarity against those who have
taken up arms against his government.
As Bulgaria's representative, Foreign Minister Passi had a meeting with
Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn, whose country takes over the
presidency from the Netherlands in January 2005.
According to a Foreign Ministry statement, Passi emphasised Bulgaria's
expectations regarding signing the EU accession treaty in early 2005.
Asselborn, the ministry said, responded with praise for Bulgaria's
progress on the road to accession.
Passi invited Asselborn to visit Bulgaria by the end of this year.
Passi had talks with his Romanian counterpart, Mircea Geoana, discussing
the progress of the two countries towards EU membership. Also discussed
were issues on the agenda on the United Nations security council, on which
Romania currently is serving as a non-permanent member, having succeeded
Bulgaria in this role.
According to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, Passi and Geoana also
discussed matters being dealt with by the Organisation for Security and
Co-operation in Europe, of which Bulgaria currently holds the
chairmanship. The OSCE was also discussed in a meeting with Croatian
foreign minister Miomir Zuzul, whose country takes over the OSCE
chairmanship in 2007.
With his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, Passi discussed cross-border
co-operation and improvements to the system of checkpoints on the
countries' shared borders.
Of note for Bulgaria was getting on to the agenda the fate of the 5
Bulgarian medics sentenced to death by firing squad in Libya for allegedly
deliberately infecting several hundred Libyan children with HIV. The
guilty verdict and death sentences are currently subject to appeal in the
Libyan supreme court.
According to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, Passi was assured that,
following the Lockerbie and Berlin terrorist bombings in which Muammar
Gaddaffi's Libyan government was involved, the fate of the Bulgarian
medics was "the main humanitarian issue" facing the EU and Libya.
Passi said that, unlike the other 2 cases, time was the main factor in
finding a favourable solution to the case of the Bulgarian medics.
(source: Sofia Echo)
