European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Bulgaria this afternoon. The visit is part of her tour of seven Eastern European countries. Von der Leyen will visit the Vazov Machine-Building Plants.
The purpose of the visits is for Brussels to demonstrate solidarity and support with the countries that are close to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and to stimulate their defense industry.
Von der Leyen will arrive in Bulgaria in the early afternoon for a meeting with Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov. The two leaders will discuss issues related to European security and defense. After that, Zhelyazkov and von der Leyen will visit the Vazov Machine-Building Plants in Sopot and will give a press conference.
The two plants are expected to be built on the sites in VMZ, together with the German concern "Rheinmetall". Part of the financing for the projects comes from the SAFE mechanism. What will the loans under the mechanism be used for - the topic was commented on by former Defense Minister Angel Naydenov, who was a guest in the BNT studio this morning.
"It is impressive, of course, that von der Leyen is visiting the countries that have a common border with Belarus and Russia. These seven countries on the eastern flank of the EU are also countries that are members of NATO. We are talking about the implementation of projects related to the acquisition of priority defense capabilities, projects aimed at overcoming the deficits in the defense capabilities of the countries that are applying and, last but not least, projects related to the modernization of the technical and technological base of the defense industry.
Before the visit to VMZ-Sopot, "Vazrazhdane" organized a protest in front of the building as a sign of dissatisfaction with the visit of the President of the European Commission.
"On Thursday evening, we understand that she will come to Bulgaria. If she was officially invited to visit, as is proper, this should have been known, let's not say months, but weeks earlier, and we learned about it on Thursday", commented Kostadin Kostadinov to BNT.
BNT: Should she inform you?
Kostadin Kostadinov: No, to the Bulgarian people. This is what is done when an official guest from abroad comes, whoever he may be. There is nothing wrong with her coming to see him, the question is why is this thing being hidden? If von der Leyen thinks that Russia is an enemy of Bulgaria, the vast majority of the Bulgarian people do not think this. Preventive measures, fine, but they must be mobilized and explained with some specific reason.