Bulgaria will be on focus at the European Parliament on Monday when it will become clear whether the resolution of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), adopted on October 1, will receive a green light in plenary as well. The wording in the statement is a breath of fresh air for the protesters and a nightmare for this country’s government.

Conclusions such as “significant deterioration of respect for the principles of rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights”, or “the Bulgarian government needs to ensure stricter control of the way the EU finds are spent and to address immediately the concerns that taxpayers’ money is being used to enrich those associated with the ruling party” cannot make Premier Boyko Borissov and his cabinet happy.

At this stage, however, the resolution passed with 5 votes only. A quick reference to the vote shows that it was supported by the members of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the liberals from Renew Europe, the group of the Greens-European Free Alliance and the far left members of EP. The MEPs from the European People’s Party, the European Conservatives and Reformists Party and Identity and Democracy Group voted against the resolution. The analysis of the balance of powers shows that 351MEPs are supporting the document and 324 MEPs are against it. However, it is not clear year how 29 non-aligned MEPs would vote. There are also questions about whether MEPs from political forces supporting the document will strictly adhere to party discipline in plenary hall and will not take instructions of their countries into account.

Premier Boyko Borissov has probably met not only with the President of the European People’s Party Donald Tusk, but also with some counterparts such as Viktor Orban for instance, with whom he has demonstrated close relations. Perhaps, the participants at the Friends of Cohesion Meeting did not only share common positions on the cohesion policy, but on other topics as well. It is not clear what participants promised one another during their negotiations when cameras and microphones are switched off.

Donald Tusks’s statement posted on his Facebook page after his meeting with Bulgaria’s Premier Borissov practically repeats the findings in the report on Bulgaria under the horizontal rule of law mechanism with the clarification that “rule of law, independent judiciary and fight against corruption are our core EPP values”. Meanwhile, Donald Tusk’s words “And democracy in Bulgaria will have its final say in the elections” show Tusk’s sharp disagreement with the attempts to make the government step down before the end of its term in office.

We can only guess on the type of negotiations and talks that are being held before the sitting in plenary on Monday.

However, one thing is sure- those who represent the protesters will not back down. Moreover, one of the members of the so-called Toxic Trio -Velislav Minekov- will be in front of the European Parliament before the beginning of the debates.

We are facing a situation in which one side has no intention to stop demanding the resignation of the cabinet and the other side has no intention to hand in its resignation. The battle will be taken to Brussels. Until now, small protests took place when European leaders gathered for European Council meetings. Now, the process is entering a new phase. We are likely to witness interesting moments and developments on Monday when the resolution of the political powers supporting the protests in Bulgaria is expected to be voted in plenary.

Written by: Angelina Piskova, correspondent of BNR in Brussels

English version: Kostadin Atanasov