The most important potential that GERB has is the potential to want a better life for Bulgarians, for the country. We need active citizens, young people in those unions that guarantee our security. This was stated by Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, who is participating in the General Assembly "Youth GERB", which is being held today in the capital, BTA reports.
Bulgaria has long been part of NATO and the European Union. We are celebrating 20 years since the treaty we signed in 2005, said Zhelyazkov. The EU is the fairest union and Europe is the best place to live. This is the direction in which our ambitions should continue, the Prime Minister said. According to him, there are factors that hinder this line of development of the union - the war, which was forgotten in Europe and which forces countries to think about defense funds. These funds were decided to reach 5% of the gross domestic product of each member state by 2035, he recalled the results of the NATO Summit, which was held this week in The Hague. Substantial investments in defense are 3.5%, 1.5% of these 5% are for science, infrastructure, dual-use technologies, the Prime Minister said.
According to him, Europe must guarantee its own security so that after Ukraine, the Baltic republics, Moldova and Romania do not have to follow suit. "The moment has come when, in order to guarantee that there are sailboats, we must also have cruisers", Zhelyazkov said. Defense funds are related to targeted investments that we must achieve by 2035. There are no annual target indicators for this and social policy funds, for example, will not be neglected at the expense of defense funds.
There are three, according to Zhelyazkov, the main pillars in the EU - security, investments and a fair social transition, in which better ecology also occurs, but not as we have been implementing the green transition policy so far. The EU is home to 5% of the world's population, if we achieve a zero footprint by 2050, this will be 6% of global carbon emissions, but by then we would have lost our competitiveness. Therefore, our ambition is competitiveness with a reduced regulatory burden, he noted. Through our security, we will guarantee the development of the economy, the Prime Minister said.