It is obvious that this 3 percent deficit that we thought we had will actually turn out to be much higher. This was commented on in the studio of "Osche ut djen" by Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova in her first television interview after taking office.
Minister Petrova explained what Bulgaria's entry into the excessive deficit procedure means.
"This is an EU regulation that ensures that the member states of the union do not fall into a situation in which they have an excessive deficit or excessive external debt. In Bulgaria's case, this is in terms of our deficit. I don't think there is anything extreme, but it is indicative that we will have to introduce relevant measures so that we fit into the 3 percent deficit. The EC is about to propose to the Council, which can adopt the relevant next steps along this line with a qualified majority. I am sure that my colleagues from the Ministry of Finance will discuss this at length and extensively in the coming weeks."
When asked about possible sanctions, Minister Petrova replied:
"A period is being determined in which there is monitoring, during which, based on the reaction of the relevant government and the measures that are being taken, there will be subsequent retaliatory actions. Indeed, we are entering into quite technical discussions here and I suggest that we leave them to our colleagues from the Ministry of Finance to discuss."
A series of meetings with EU leaders was held by Prime Minister Rumen Radev in recent days.
"Bulgaria is proactively acting with its key partners at the EU and NATO levels. Bulgaria has been well received. The main common feature of all these meetings was the satisfaction of all leaders that Bulgaria finally has a stable majority, which was elected by the people's vote in a very broad sense. This predictability and stability of Bulgaria is extremely key. And you see that while in other EU countries it is increasingly difficult to maintain governments, there are very complex coalitions, this is not the case with us. It shows that Bulgaria is ready and has the political mandate to be an active member that seeks to find its regional role, which it has also had until now, but it must be stated in a more categorical way."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed sympathy for Romania over the incident in which a Russian drone fell on an apartment building, the Minister of Foreign Affairs also said. She has spoken with the security advisor to the President of Romania.
"We fully condemn this type of attack. In this case, we are talking about drones, most likely aimed at Ukrainian territory, which of course left the territory and reached Romania. It clearly shows that the way in which military actions are conducted with this type of technology can be extremely dangerous and the perimeter in which this happens is expanding. And there is no way to know that there will not be situations of this type of case, when there are victims. That is precisely why the call is to find an approach to dialogue that we can conduct together at the European level, so that such risks can be reduced."