In a statement concerning the decision by the caretaker government to repeal the ordinance on the permanent settlement of refugees in Bulgarian municipalities, President Rumen Radev states, that the integration of foreign nationals is an issue that is too complicated and too important to be regulated by formal ordinances, without taking into account the risk to national security and to the EU as a whole.

The president adds that integration without clear criteria and mechanisms leads to isolation, encapsulation and radicalism, phenomena we have been witnessing in a number of European countries. According to the Bulgarian head of state, before a system for the settlement of refugees is created, there must be an in-depth analysis and risk assessment, clear-cut integration criteria, mechanisms of measuring the success of this integration and a national body to monitor how these processes are developing.