Ekaterina Zaharieva: We Should Not Allow Division in the EU over the Coronavirus Crisis
02 July 2020 News
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva restated Bulgaria’s support for the priorities of the German Presidency of the Council of the EU, which started on 1 July. She pointed out its important role for the EU’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
“It is important not to allow the pandemic to widen the economic development gap between EU Member States and to prevent it from leading to new division in the Union,” Ekaterina Zaharieva said at a video conference dedicated to the German Presidency and organized by the Pan-Europa Bulgaria non-governmental organization with the assistance of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
The Foreign Minister asserted that no single government or country could tackle this unprecedented crisis on its own. Ekaterina Zaharieva added that the motto of the German Presidency “Together for Europe’s recovery” is very appropriate for these times. “Cohesion and solidarity have never been as important for Europe as they are today,” the Foreign Minister said, noting that this period will serve as a test of the EU’s capacity to tackle challenges as a united front.
Germany’s Ambassador to Bulgaria, Christoph Eichhorn, presented the nine priorities of the German Presidency, which may be summarized with the phrase “solidarity and sovereignty.” The main priority will be tackling the COVID-19 crisis and all of its consequences, including the economic ones. “We should never waste a crisis that could enable us to find better, working solutions for the future,” Ambassador Eichhorn said.
Ekaterina Zaharieva congratulated the German Ambassador on his country’s fast reaction in reformulating the priorities, so that they would correspond to the main topic on the European and, indeed, the global agenda in recent months. She welcomed Germany’s strong commitment to the European prospects of the countries of the Western Balkans, which coincides with one of the priorities in Bulgaria’s foreign policy.
Minister Zaharieva thanked the outgoing Croatian Presidency for its efforts to achieve coordination at EU level in an unprecedented context. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to reach agreement, especially at online meetings, but Croatia invested all its efforts in implementing the plan for its Presidency,” the Foreign Minister said.
Germany will hold the presidency of the Council of the EU until the end of the year. The last time this took place was on 1 January 2007, when Bulgaria became a full member of the EU.