Bulgaria's PM Sergey Stanishev and socialists' leader in his unique rocker dressing style led the plenary session of his party on its Kosovo position. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the senior partner in the governing coalition, adopted Saturday a final position on Kosovo, which makes its recognition conditional on the implementation of the Ahtisaari Plan.
The Saturday plenum of the Supreme Council of the BSP lasted more than seven hours during which they debated heatedly the issue of Kosovo's independence.
"Bulgaria's government needs to bind the establishing of relations with Kosovo to the adoption and the guaranteeing by the Kosovo parliament of the Constitution and the basic laws according to the Ahtisaari Plan", the final text of the BSP declaration reads.
After a three-hour heated debate, the initially proposed version of the declaration, which stated that Bulgaria should declare its principal support for independent Kosovo, was removed from the text. The strongest argument against this statement was that the creation of the new state of Kosovo contradicted all principles of international law.
The adopted declaration states the guarantee of Bulgaria's national interests depended on the regional stability, Bulgaria's membership in NATO and the EU, and the good relations between the countries in Southeast Europe.
The Socialists also express their regret that despite Bulgaria's efforts for finding a compromise between Serbia and its province regarding the Kosovo status, this had proven impossible.
The declaration of Supreme Council of the BSP was adopted with only one vote against.
After the plenum, Bulgaria's PM and BSP leader Sergey Stanishev said that EU did have a common policy towards Kosovo despite the different positions of its members. As a proof, Stanishev cited the common commitment to the EU mission in Kosovo, and the EU support for the implementation of the Ahtisaari Plan.