Bulgaria Needs EU Financial Assistance for Refugees, Border Protection - President

Politics » DOMESTIC | March 16, 2016, Wednesday // 12:24
Bulgaria: Bulgaria Needs EU Financial Assistance for Refugees, Border Protection - President Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev. File photo, BGNES

Bulgaria should receive financial assistance from the EU to deal with the inflow of refugees and migrants and step up border protection, President Rosen Plevneliev has said.

In his words, the need to provide accommodation, medical services, and food to migrants is placing a big burden on the budget.

"Bulgaria stands up for the position that all external borders of the EU with Turkey must be equally protected," he has insisted in an interview with DW's Bulgarian office, reiterating a demand of the Sofia government.

The President also opined there is no contradiction between humane attitude to refugees and steps to ensure security for citizens.

He has urged Europe to be honest with economic migrants and tell them it cannot give all of them the life they are dreaming of.

"I admire [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel for her humanism," Plevneliev has noted, praising her "value-based, responsible policy, unlike many other politicians in Europe who think and act in the short-term, entirely led by narrow partisan and national interests."

"Our weapon is integration, not isolation. Our weapon is an educated and tolerant society where differences are respected and enrich us," the head of state has opined, warning against attempts by Europeans to circle themselves in "communities and groups of interest."

Commenting on the National Security Council's assessment of dangers stemming from the migrant inflow to Bulgaria, Plevneliev has asserted that Bulgaria is prepared to react if "large groups" of people head to the country from Turkey or Greece and has pointed to the legal changes which allowed in February to dispatch the army to the border as a means of assistance to border police.

"The migration crisis affects all of us, a solution can only be found jointly... with rules being in force for everyone," he has also noted.

"To me as a head of state there is no contradiction between the observation of human rights and good control of our external borders," he has added, voicing hope that Bulgaria would not turn into an alternative route for migrants after the one through the Western Balkans was closed.  

"For each one of the countries that are the first to receive the migrant influx, a crossing point has to be found between humanitarian attitude to refugees, sifting out refugees from economic migrants, and the acceptance of common policies and rules we should all observe."

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Tags: Rosen Plevneliev, Angela Merkel, turkey, greece, EU, migrants, migrant crisis, border

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