Bulgaria will submit an official request for membership in the European Union immediately after the EU Intergovernmental Conference in 1996, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov said. He expressed a hope that this meeting would open Bulgaria's way to Europe. At a joint news conference today, Prime Minister Videnov, Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Kiril Tsochev outlined the priorities of Bulgaria's foreign policy and foreign economic relations.
"We received unqualified support for our intention to apply for full membership in the EU," said Videnov, referring to his visit to Strasbourg and Brussels and his talks with European Commission President Jacques Santer. This is the first visit by Videnov's government to a large number of international organizations. Immediately after its accession to United Europe, Bulgaria will apply for membership in the Western European Union. Bulgaria will seek the speediest possible accession to the EU, but this process may take years, Videnov said. As to Bulgaria's will for full membership in the two political organizations, it is categorical and has been reiterated many times, the prime minister said.
Videnov said his visit to Strasbourg and Brussels early this week had been successful. He listed three main objectives of the visit: first, to set forth the major aspects of the new government's domestic and foreign policy; second, to emphasize the European priority in Bulgaria's foreign policy as a lasting, essential and consensus characteristic; and third, to provide fresh impetus to Bulgaria's participation in the integration processes and to closer contacts with the European and Euro-Atlantic structures in particular. All three goals were achieved, Videnov said.
Prime Minister Videnov believes that Bulgaria is the country that could take advantage of the strategy for preparing the associated countries of Central and Eastern Europe for accession to the EU mapped out at the Essen Summit most quickly and directly. A government committee on European integration was set up to this end, he recalled. "We had an opportunity to help fix the date for a constituent meeting of a Bulgaria-EU Association Council, which will be held in Brussels on May 29, Videnov said.
During the next two months the Bulgarian government will intensify its dialogue with the European structures, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Kiril Tsochev. The May schedule alone is enough to show that the dialogue with the European structures on foreign economic matters will be very active, he said.
In May EU Commissioner Hans van den Broek will visit Bulgaria. Later on the Bulgarian-Bavarian joint committee will hold its first meeting and the Bulgarian- German cooperative council will hold its second meeting. Memorandums will be signed on starting negotiations for free-trade zones with the Czech Republic and Slovakia; a trade agreement will be signed with Austria; the 15 EU foreign ministers and the foreign ministers of the associated countries will meet; the Bulgarian-Russian intergovernmental committee will hold its third session and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin will visit Bulgaria. During his visit to Bulgaria, Hans van den Broek will review all aspects of the dialogue at the beginning of the new stage of an indicative program prepared for a five-year period.
Sofia, April 26 - Regional infrastructure was high on the agenda of a working visit Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski paid to Bucharest on Monday. Meeting with his Romanian counterpart Melescanu, Minister Pirinski stressed the need for taking measures, including provisional ones, to facilitate the traffic through the Rousse - Giurgiu check point, on the Danube, in the summer. The sides decided to take prompt measures to this end.
The location of a second bridge over the Danube was another major issue. The two foreign ministers had not been mandated to set a specific location of the bridge and the meeting only stressed the two country's stands on the matter, Georgi Panayotov of the Foreign Ministry Southeastern Europe Department told journalists today.
The Romanian side insists that the bridge be built in the Eastern part of the two countries' common section of the Danube, while Bulgaria believes it should be built more to the West. The new bridge will take over the Northeast- Southwest traffic, i.e. from Central Europe, via Bulgaria and Greece, to the Middle East.
An English consultancy firm in February came out with a stand that the best option is for the bridge to link Lom and Rast. The Bulgarian and Romanian transport ministers are expected to meet again to pinpoint a location for the new bridge. There is also a possibility for settling the matter on a political level, at a meeting between the two countries' Prime Ministers.
It emerged today that Bulgarian Prime Minister Zhan Videnov will pay a visit to Bucharest some time soon. Answering a journalist's question, Panayotov made it no secret that European financial institutions might refuse to invest in the construction of the bridge because of Bulgaria and Romania's failure to take a decision on the matter.
The location of a second Danubian bridge was brought forward at yesterday's meeting between the Bulgarian Prime Minister and European Commission President Jacques Santer in Brussels. Mr. Santer said the European Commission supports the two countries' efforts to find a solution to the problem.
Sofia, April 26 - Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski received an invitation from his Yugoslav counterpart Vladislav Jovanovic to visit Belgrade. A letter from Foreign Minister Jovanovic delivered by Yugoslavian Charge dAffaires in Sofia to Minister Pirinski expresses the Yugoslav Government's appreciation of the joint statement issued by Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine in Athens on April 14 and its contribution to the peaceful settlement of the conflict in the territory of former Yugoslavia and the lifting of sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Minister Pirinski thanked for the invitation to visit Belgrade and repeated Bulgaria's position that "the efforts of the contact group should be supported by the countries in the region and the whole international community to work out and apply balanced solutions for a peaceful, just and lasting settlement of the conflict," it is said in a statement for the mass media read by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry Spokesman. Minister Pirinski shared the view that the good relations between Sofia and Belgrade would help find such solution and resolve all outstanding bilateral problems.
Varna, April 26 - A three-day international symposium "Black Sea - Naval View '95" opened at the St. St. Konstantin and Elena resort near Varna today. Senior military of France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Britain, the US and Bulgaria, NATO South Europe representatives and representatives of US Sixth Fleet, military experts and lecturers will discuss the prospects of international cooperation of naval forces in the spirit of the Partnership for Peace initiative.
"Our purpose is to formulate ideas the realization of which would facilitate transparency in military planning and create possibilities for acquiring new skills in international cooperation," said Rear Admiral Hristo Kontrov, acting Commander of the Bulgarian Navy, in his opening remarks.
The military industrial complex (MIC) in 1994 manufactured and sold special products for a total of $ 240 million, Industry Minister Kliment Vouchev told a news conference here today. Sales this year are expected to double. Stepping in office, the cabinet pledged to boost the MIC. The Industry Minister himself said he would make military factories the engine of Bulgarian industry.
In line with international agreements, Bulgaria does sells no special products to Libya, Iraq and former Yugoslavia, said Industry Minister Vouchev. The output of the MIC now goes mostly to Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the US.
Over the 1987-88 period, this country posted an annual profit of $ 4,500 million from military productions, Defense Minister Pavlov told journalists two months ago. Bulgaria has raw materials, production facilities and qualified labor; it only needs the markets to have the whole country, not just this sector, overcome the crisis, he also said.
Mr. Vouchev believes that military factories with the Industry Ministry should be privatized, including those which a month ago were handed over by the Interdepartmental Council for the Military-Industrial Complex and Mobilization Readiness. He said the Industry Ministry has to date received 27,000-28,000 restitution claims. But privatization in this sector could be launched only after the late 1995 expiry, or earlier revoking, of the privatization ban the 36th National Assembly introduced for the MIC. According to Defense Minister Pavlov, privatization is the wisest thing to do but the dead stock of equipment and labor will make this sector difficult to denationalize.
One of the major problems facing Bulgarian military works is the stagnation of research work. The dire financial straits of the MIC over the past five years resulted in having an outdated military production and US military producers have already taken the vacated market niches. A way to handle this situation is to have a powerful Research and Innovations Department operating with the Defense Ministry. In four or five years' time Bulgaria will lose all buyers unless urgent measures are taken to upgrade the products, according to the head of the Industry Ministry MIC Department.
Sofia, April 26 - Bulgarian National Assembly Chairman Blagovest Sendov, who is on an official visit to Moscow, conferred today with the Chair of the Russian State Duma Ivan Rybkin.
Sendov stressed on the broken scientific, technological and cultural ties between Bulgaria and Russia and the need for more active liberalization of bilateral economic relations. Rybkin brought up security and cooperation in Europe, and mostly NATO. Sendov informed the Russian side that already in 1993 the Bulgarian Parliament adopted a clear stand on this issue. Bulgaria has to guarantee its security in an unstable region such as the Balkans, but this country's striving for integration into the European structures is not directed against the interests of other countries, Sendov said.
The NATO issue was also discussed during the meetings of the Bulgarian delegation with the Deputy Chair of the State Duma Genady Seleznyov and with Vladimir Lukin, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee. The talks covered issues related to the setting up of an all- European security system and to the growth of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.
The program of the visit includes talks with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, with the Chair of the Federation Council Vladimir Shumeiko, with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksey II.
On May 1-3, the British Embassy in Sofia said today. The guest is expected to meet Bulgarian political leaders. Douglas Hogg was appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in 1990. He is former MP and minister of state for industry and trade.
Geocom won a tender for a 13 million US dollar prospecting project in Libya, organized by the Italian company Agip, write "Douma" and "Pari." With the contract already signed, workers can expect to get their wages, which have not been paid for three years, within three or four months, says Geocom boss Alexander Tsonev.
Balkantourist, Bulgaria's leading tour operator, will establish its own network of overseas agencies, writes "Douma." For its part, "Pari" reports that Balkantourist Inc. is already an all-private company. Bulgarian Tourist Holding Inc. (affiliated to the Multigroup private conglomerate) has bought 51 per cent of the national tour operator, and the manager team has acquired a 29 per cent block of shares.
The Black Sea resort of Albena (Northeastern Bulgaria) expects to welcome 80,000 foreign vacationers this summer. Fifty per cent of the beds in the resort are already booked, writes "Troud."
The budget deficit reached nearly 20,000 million leva in mid-April, according to Finance Ministry sources quoted in "24 Chassa."
Business is dull on the exchanges after the Easter season, most dailies report.