HE Philippe Beke was appointed Belgium's Ambassador to Bulgaria in 2003, equally accredited in Macedonia. Prior to his arrival in Sofia he served as Permanent Representation of Belgium at the European Union, Belgian negotiator on enlargement (2000-2003). Chief at the Crisis cabinet of the Belgian Commissioner (1999-2000), Deputy Chief at the Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade (1998-1999). During the 90s his work took him to Italy (Consul-General of Belgium in Milan), Egypt (Counsellor at the Belgian Embassy in Cairo), Thailand (First Secretary at the Belgian Embassy in Bangkok). Married, has two children.
Ambassador Beke answered questions of Novinite.com Editor-in-Chief Milena Hristova *
Q: Do you see the timely accession of Bulgaria to the European Union as the end of a success story?
A: Bulgaria's accession should be seen as the beginning of a success story. This is the beginning of Bulgaria's European story, which will bring new issues to be discussed in society, in the political and economic life. Bulgaria shared the values of the European family and is now sharing the European institutions. This means a lot of hard work and many new and interesting challenges ahead. Bulgaria will find its own place in the European family. I believe that as a transit country as Bulgaria has every interest to have an open mind and be as integrative federalist as possible. This can play only to its advantage.
Q: How can Bulgaria silence those who doubt it is ready to join the bloc? Where do the main risks of failure and safeguard clauses lie?
A: Let's say that Bulgaria is not completely ready to join the European construction, but it is ready enough. Let's not forget that from the ten countries that entered the European Union in 2004 only Slovenia has joined today the Eurozone. The most important matter is to believe that Bulgaria is sufficiently ready to accede to the European Union. It is true that with 22 transitional periods Bulgaria has in different areas still some homework to do. It is also true that Bulgaria's judiciary is still not up to standards, that is why the Commission is still monitoring closely the matter. There lies the biggest risk of failure, namely that the rule of law will not be implemented, as it should be. The commission has several tools to manage the dysfunctioning of market economy. We will see what measures the Commission will have to take. Furthermore, black economy is unfortunately still in place. These practices are definitely not favouring the image of the country, which in itself is also a risk of failure. The key to the future lies in further reforms and development of the needed administrative capacity.
Q: Belgium decided to temporarily close its labour market for Bulgarian and Romanian jobseekers. How would you justify that decision?
A: I will try to clear out the issue, as there has been lot of misunderstandings.
To start with, there is unfortunately almost no acquis in the social security issue, which complicates a lot the social status of the workers in the different countries. Furthermore there are the labour obligations under the Lisbon strategy, which indicates that under socially respectful conditions, the unemployment has to be tackled in the member countries. You understand that in these days of ageing population and combating grey economy, this is an important challenge for all governements, including ours.
This said, it has to be understood that Belgium took a very positive decision for Bulgarian and Romanian jobseekers by adopting the same approach as to the eight Central European countries that joined in 2004. That means that there is today no discrimination between workers from northern and southern Central Europe, they all have the same facilities to the labour market.
The EU treaty sets forward transitional periods for free movement of workers, which says that the citizens of Bulgaria and Romania are subject to a 2+3+2 scheme, during which the national legislation remains in place. Belgium's national legislation remained in place for the eight Central European countries from May 1, 2004 onwards and has now been transformed in a selective labour market approach. Belgium allows these workers without any supplementary permit for so-called bottleneck jobs, these are jobs for which there are hardly any qualified candidates to be found in the country.
Next to this scheme, today all foreign workers that have a contract with a company or that are working for a subsidiary under the so called detachment directive or are self-employed, can also work freely.
It seems to me that with an unemployment rate of 8,5% Bulgaria does not need to think too much about sending out jobless people. It has to think about integrating the jobless people into the local economic life and securing enough expertise to serve all companies. The lack of expertise should be tracked and given support with supplementary training. This means also to favour a policy attracting Bulgarians to come back from abroad by making them attractive proposals.
Q: How would you comment the proposal the rapporteur for Bulgaria Geoffrey Van Orden for a delay in the decommissioning of the nuke units, due on January 1? What was the political message that the proposal sent? Could Bulgaria benefit from it even though it was rejected?
A: The European Parliament can give in its advisory function an opinion on different issues, but the Treaty with the European Union, which envisages the closure of the units and was approved by the European Parliament, should be the only reference. Although one can make a whole history out of the issue, it was clear as early as in November 1999 that not only nuclear units number 1 and 2, but also 3 and 4 would be decommissioned.
It should be stressed here that the European Union has committed itself to pay for the decommissioning. There is 210 million euro allotted for decommissioning plus financing to be foreseen under the Social Fund. We should also bear in mind that there are also other facilities in the financial perspective 2007 - 2013. It is moreover too often forgotten that the EU already funded the upgrade of units 5 and 6 so that they are now up to standards and compensate for the closure of units 3 and 4.
Let's hope that the construction of the Belene nuclear plant will be finalized as soon as possible in order to secure a further growth of electricity production in the country.
Q: Do you think Bulgarian politicians did their best to spell out the impact of EU accession to the average Bulgarian?
A: I have been always very supportive of initiatives to explain what the EU is about. I personally participated in events organised to this respect. The Dutch Presidency for instance organised in 2004 seminars in the country in which I tried to participate as much as possible. Bulgarian authorities, ngo's and municipalities like Radomir have done a lot, but I believe that further efforts should be undertaken in this respect.
There is really a need for much more explanations about what Europe is, what the obligations of Bulgaria are. The European Union members vow not only their political engagement, but also vow to adopt and implement the legislation.
Q: Do you share the opinion that the European Union is "doomed" to continue its expansion?
A: If Switzerland and Norway express a wish to enter the European Union, they will enter immediately. The problem is that many of the countries that entered the EU under the fifth enlargement were considered by the population as not ready. For us it is very important to support the new member states not only before, but also during the first years of accession and help them be better prepared.
The discussion on how we manage enlargement is going back to the beginning of the 90s. EC President Jacques Delors believed it would have been wiser to take on board member countries only after they were really ready. EFTA prepared Austria, Finland and Sweden so that upon accession these countries could immediately get in the system. In the end with the big bang theory, readiness became more relative value. Enlargement is not a black or white story. The European institutions started to build on the European neighbourhood policy, first called Wider Europe, as an alternative for enlargement. As it stands the only real commitment for starting negotiations in view of membership was taken towards Turkey and the Western Balkan countries.
The most important issue however, is that we should know what EU structure we want in the future. The issue is all the more urgent after the no-vote in two member states and the hesitation in some member countries to ratify the text of the European constitutional treaty. We cannot go further and talk about enlargement unless we clearly see the future of the European institutions and know how to cope with the difficulties some member states encounter in their integration.
Belgium would like to go a step further with the European constitutional treaty. We believe that the European Union needs a more integrated social and fiscal policy in order to function properly in the globalized world. Our Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt wrote a book about it, "The United States of Europe", which I invite everybody to read.
* Novinite.com approached EU member states ambassadors to Sofia to present their views and expectations on Bulgaria's accession
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Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
