The President of the “Renew Europe” group in the European Parliament, Valérie Hayer, called on the European Commission to urgently send a mission to Bulgaria to assess the rule of law situation and to freeze all payments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility related to judicial reform in the country, reported BNR’s correspondent in Brussels, Angelina Piskova.

During the debate in the European Parliament on the rule of law in Bulgaria and the arrest of the mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev, Valérie Hayer stated: “What we are witnessing in Bulgaria happens not by accident. It happens in a country where justice has been captured by oligarchs and where those who stand for reforms are treated as enemies of the state. This is the corrupt world of Delyan Peevski and his ally Boyko Borissov. Their despotic system silences judges, prosecutors, security services, media. Delyan Peevski is a danger for democracy. One by one, he is taking control of all the existing political parties. One by one, those political parties are used as tools to silence opponents.”

• The EP Liberals are set to investigate the arrest of the mayor of Varna

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Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev from the European People’s Party countered that the debates have nothing to do with the rule of law and aimed at inflating the deflated electoral bubble of “We Continue the Change.” According to him, after four years of chaos and disintegration, Bulgaria is now stabilizing thanks to the statesmanlike policy of GERB and Boyko Borissov. Furthermore, the country is already in the Schengen area and will be joining the eurozone in a few months.

 On November 17, Bulgaria will be a key focus of the EU General Affairs Council, along with three other member states, for discussions on the rule of law, according to the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Published and translated by Kostadin Atanasov

Photo: EPA/BGNES