Bulgaria hosted in the past few days the annual meeting of the Presidents from the Arraiolos group. The group was established in Portugal over one decade ago. Its purpose is to allow Presidents who do not represent their countries in the European Council to speak about topical common European issues. Ten presidents of the Arraiolos group out of twelve arrived to Bulgaria to take part at this year's meeting. Bulgaria has not received so many high-standing guests for a long time and from this point of view the meeting reminded of the good old times of Bulgaria's foreign activities. On the other hand, Bulgaria hosted the Arraiolos meeting only three years after it joined that group, which is in fact a high recognition about that country's significance on the international stage.

Bulgaria's President Rossen Plevneliev pointed out during the opening of the forum that currently the EU has been living through eleven crises related to migration, terrorism, Greece's financial difficulties, the relations between the EU and Russia, economic and debt crisis, unemployment, nationalism and populism, crisis in the Schengen Area and the moral crisis stemming from the lack of solidarity and steadfast decisions. In President Plevneliev's view, the EU countries are in urgent necessity of finding a long-term and coordinated solution to the problems and restoring the confidence of the citizens in their institutions. Germany's President Joachim Gauck, Italy's President Sergio Mattarella, Latvia's head of state Raimonds Vejonis, Malta's President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, Poland's President Andrzej Duda, Portugal's head of state Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Slovenia's President Borut Pahor, Hungary's Head of state Janos Ader and Finland's President Sauli Niinisto also united around the stand that the EU should adopt a common approach, in order to overcome the current crises. All President participating at the meeting unanimously announced that security of the EU borders was a top priority and that the EU should strengthen control at its external borders and stop the uncontrolled crossing of EU borders. Moreover, they pointed out that the agreement between the EU and Turkey on the readmission of migrants is fragile, but a working one. Sofia has been defending that stand for many months now.

The Presidents also accentuated on the necessity for encouraging the processes of EU integration of the Balkan countries. Germany's President Joachim Gauck made it clear that the countries from the Western Balkans were a priority in Germany's foreign policy and that the EU have been continuing to encourage the development of all applicant countries. The other participants at the forum also provided unambiguous support towards the EU perspective of the Western Balkan countries. Being part of the Southeast European Cooperation Process Bulgaria has been advocating for a full EU integration of the Balkan region for twenty whole years. However, that cause has never before received such a categorical support.

The main topics of discussion during the Arraiolos meeting coincide with the agenda of the informal EU Summit in Bratislava. Some of those topics were discussed during the trilateral meetings between the Premiers of Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia in Burgas earlier this week. The debate continues in the coming hours.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov