Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-02-15-Speech-2-686-000"
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"en.20110215.32.2-686-000"2
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"Mr President, what we heard from the Commission confirms the fact that Bulgarian legislation regarding the use of eavesdropping devices conforms with European law. We cannot be different because each Member State is obliged to guarantee its citizens fundamental rights and to observe the legal procedures, which is what Bulgaria does.
So what is it that has provoked the debate in this House today? The answer is simple. An election campaign is under way in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian opposition has brought the fight to the European Parliament, obviously irrespective of whether it discredits Bulgaria or not and for the sole purpose of extracting political dividends which, I assure you, is doubtful in the extreme.
It must be hard for the European institutions to convince themselves of the good intentions of representatives of the former tripartite coalition in Bulgaria, during whose rule there were plenty of examples of corruption, an unwillingness to fight crime and lack of confidence on the part of the European Union. The fellow Members who initiated this debate have clearly lost the patience to wait for the Commission’s answers, and wanted the debate to be held prior to the interim report on Bulgaria’s progress under the Mechanism for Verification and Cooperation.
I would like to make a little joke here. My fellow Members are obviously guided by high-minded patriotic ideas of doing as much damage to the Bulgarian Government as possible. It is a disgrace that in this empty, half-empty, or practically empty hall, we Bulgarians are at each other’s throats. Instead of working together in the interests of our citizens, we are dealing with hearsay, manipulations and a war of political mud-slinging.
Bulgaria’s present government is under attack from the old status quo, the remnants of the communist regime in the structures of power and those who illegally enriched themselves during the period of transition. The aim of this united front is not just to destabilise Bulgaria and to halt GERB’s efforts for a fairer society, but to discredit our country in the eyes of our European partners. I repeat: what is happening here this evening is pitiful and disgraceful.
This clearly smacks of the envy of those circles, both political and economic, with the government’s success in its uncompromising war against criminality and corruption, and with its honest and open way of conducting policy. In recent days, fellow Members of the Bulgarian opposition have presented the situation in Bulgaria in the darkest possible terms. They talk of fear, a police state, repressions, hunger, poverty, regression, as we just heard and so forth. Bulgaria’s reputation is being tarnished for the sake of short-term political gains. The very opposite is true.
There are no contract killings or kidnappings, organised crime has been dealt a severe blow and the channels of corruption which benefited the circles of the old status quo, not just economically but also politically, have been cut off. The country is stable at the macro-economic level, and offers some of the best conditions for investment in Europe. The government is stable, the Bulgarian parliament enjoys a stable majority, it governs openly and is a respected and worthy European partner.
Finally, I would like to once again apologise to my fellow MEPs from other Member States who are here, for wasting their time in this, unfortunately, very Bulgarian pre-election debate."@en1
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