President of Greece Katerina Sakelaropoulou visited Bulgaria yesterday and discussed cooperation between the two countries in economy, energy, culture and tourism. Their talks’ main topic is to effectively counter inflation, improve energy connectivity and provide reliable energy supply chains.
On October 1st, the Greece interconnector was put into service to meet the country’s energy supplies when Gazprom sabotaged Bulgaria’s supplies for supporting Ukraine. It is expected that talks about interconnector were also conducted to increase their capacity.
President Radev said, “The strategic partnership between Bulgaria and Greece is built on mutual trust and understanding and is a factor in regional stability. With President Katerina Sakelaropoulou, who is on a state visit, we discussed improving energy connectivity and bolstering the supply chains”.
President Radev appreciated Greece’s principles and consistent support for Bulgaria’s Schengen membership. He said, “Our two countries protect the EU’s longest land border by migration flows together, and we expect more solidarity from our European partners”.
President Radev added, “Before borders and barriers are lifted in Europe, the need for support for countries that guard the external borders and ensure the security of all EU countries must be realized. The sooner Bulgaria joins the Schengen space, the faster more forces and resources will be redirected from the borders of Greece and Romania to the protection of the external EU borders”.
As quoted by Wikipedia, Greece strongly supports Bulgaria’s Euro-Atlantic integration and entry to the Schengen Area. Bulgaria and Greece share common political views about the Balkans, the enlargement plans of the European Union and the rest of the world, with Bulgaria supporting Greece’s stance on the Macedonia naming dispute (1991–2019).
Greece also supported Bulgaria after the Netherlands blocked the country’s admission to Schengen. Romania and Croatia are currently set to join Schengen, while Mark Rutte intercepted Bulgaria’s way to Schengen. He highlighted the country’s corruption and high migration illegal flow, which does not make Bulgaria eligible to enter the Schengen.
President Radev stressed that Bulgaria would soon join Schengen and there was no need to Politicize this matter.