Following his international debut in Brussels – a way to testify to the leaders of the EU and NATO Sofia’s unwavering and consistent European and Euro-Atlantic orientation - and after his participation in the informal European Council meeting in Valletta, the new Bulgarian President Rumen Radev made on Monday his first official inter-state visit - to Germany, where his host was German President Joachim Gauck. The visit accentuated heavily on economy, as Rumen Radev noted in the first place that “Germany is a strategic economic partner of Bulgaria.”Following their talks the two presidents gave a joint press conference. „We have exchanged opinion on the EU current agenda and on the agenda of the two countries. We share common responsibility and values for the attainment of a strong, prosperous and safe united Europe“, the Bulgarian guest said. In turn, Joachim Gauckwas explicit saying that Germany deemed important the challenge that Bulgaria should deal with – combating corruption. „We are aware that work on this problem has been underway for a long time and we hope to see results soon”, Gauck added.

By the way, the German president is not the first senior foreign official who has put his finger on the sore place. This concern and also a warning has been voiced every time when Bulgarian politicians communicate with EU leaders on various occasions. This came to no surprise to President Radev and he declared that Bulgarian would go on working to create a stable and predictable business environment for German entrepreneurs. „We are determined to unite the efforts of all institutions, of civil society and political parties for the sake of effective measures to combat corruption and crime, and of clear and transparent conditions for doing business in Bulgaria”, the Bulgarian president pledged.

Redev andGauckalso addressed the issue of raising security of European citizens in the context of the refugee crisis. The Bulgarian president did not miss the chance to point out that Sofia had long lived up to the technical criteria for accession to Schengen, but that some member-states prevented its accession based on purely political arguments, which was unacceptable. Rightfully, Radev said that Bulgaria was doing its best to guard its border with Turkey which is an outer EU border, but for a more effective resistance to the refuge wave Sofia should be given access to all Schengen databases.

The one-day official visit of Rumen Radev to Germany closed with the opening of an economic forum focused on Bulgaria with the participation of roughly 100 German companies.

English Daniela Konstantinova