H.E. Mr. Branimir Zaimov:

Thank you, Chairman. I thank all the Deputies and Senators who have expressed their good wishes to my country and the Presidency we are to hold over the next six months. I will briefly try to answer some of the questions.

Most of statements by the distinguished Deputies and Senators are in agreement with what I have said. I would like especially to mention the statement by Senator Craughwell. I really appreciate his ideas on dividing the refugees from the so-called economic migrants, Bulgaria is one of the front-line countries. Although we have a long border with Turkey, we do not have as many people crossing over as is the case for Italy or Greece. We know that this is due not only to the fact that migrants are not so much interested in coming into Bulgaria but rather in going on to the central and western parts of Europe, but also because of the agreement the European Union has with Turkey on border controls.

Although nobody can doubt that there are some problems at the moment with Turkey and the authoritarian regime which exists there, Bulgaria as a neighbour to Turkey is always interested in continuing the dialogue, especially in the aspect of Turkey keeping its obligations to prevent migrants from crossing over its land borders with Bulgaria and Greece. We are understanding of the plight of the migrants and I am fully supportive of the idea that we should treat all of them in a humane way. However, there are some concerns among central European countries that a new division should be made between real asylum seekers, who need all our support, and economic migrants who might be trying to reach our borders just for economic gain. I fully support the proposition by the Senator that we should make a clear distinction between those two categories and that we should try to be more proactive in our approach to migration. That is one of the priorities of our Presidency.

I thank Senator Richmond for his statement. Of course energy security is one of the main topics of our Presidency. We support the idea of a clean energy package, and the main point in our programme on the energy sector is to contribute to the establishment of a stable energy union in the European Union. We aim to maximise the possible results of the negotiations with the European Parliament on the clean energy for all Europeans package.

Coming back to the topic of Brexit, we welcome the progress achieved during the first phase of negotiations on all three main topics. Citizens' rights have been secured, investment financed by the EU budget has been secured and the peace process and the conditions of North-South co-operation on the island of Ireland have been secured. The main task, in our view, for the coming months is the adoption of negotiating directives on transitional arrangements by the General Affairs Council, which is supposed to happen on 29 January, and the adoption by the European Council of guidelines on the framework for future relations on 23 March. The Bulgarian Presidency has already scheduled all Council and COREPER meetings which will lead to the implementation of these tasks.

If all goes as planned we know the agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union should be ready for signature in October 2018. This gives enough time for ratification and entry into force before March 2019, which is the date set by the British for their withdrawal. Unfortunately, Bulgaria and Ireland are not happy with the idea of withdrawal and hope something else might be arranged. However, we still need clarification from the UK side on its intentions with regard to the future of its trade agreement with the EU, because depending on whether it stays in the European market or the customs union, which it has declared it plans to leave, the negotiations, of course, might take another path. This would lead us to something similar to the trade agreements the European Union has with Canada or South Korea, for example. If it remains in the Single Market or customs union it will be much easier to negotiate something along the European Union agreement with Norway, which, of course, would be a much better perspective for Ireland and all other EU countries.

With regard to young people, economic growth and social cohesion are key to the future of Europe. The future of the Union is to continue efforts for social cohesion. Our Presidency will work for an active and constructive debate on the multiannual financial framework. We are aware the world is changing, and overcoming the challenges will require resources. We are convinced we must look for balance between new and existing funds and between financial instruments and grant financing.

With regard to security and stability in a strong and united Europe, our Presidency will work towards lasting and fair solutions in the area of asylum policy, as I mentioned, with efficient policies for return and readmission and a balanced approach between short and long-term measures aimed at the source of migration. We share the opinion of the Irish, which is we should try to deal with the source of migration, that is to say to provide more funds for African and Asian countries which might develop and, thus, stop the flow of migration to Europe by helping them in their development.

With regard to the topic raised by Deputy Haughey, of course we are aware of the negative reports. I assure him the Bulgarian Government is treating these reports very seriously. Very recently, just a week ago, the Bulgarian Parliament adopted a new law in the fight against corruption, which creates a new independent body that will examine corruption in high places.

We know of similar reports on the topic of migrants and mistreatment. The Minister of Interior is doing his best to avoid having such accusations in future because some of the stories are, frankly, made up either by migrants or opposition parties in Bulgaria. The Government is doing its utmost to prevent such stories spreading as fake news. Bulgaria supported the idea of having migrant quotas. We wanted to take our quota of migrants at the time, but things have changed and now there are discussions in Brussels on a new way of dealing with this situation.