Peter-Vincent Schuld

The presidency of the European Union rotates every six months. Bulgaria’s presidency began on 1 January.
A country that is a member of the union does not have to do or refrain from doing anything in order to hold the presidency. Bulgaria automatically took over from Estonia, which held the presidency for the past six months. Bulgaria is a relatively new member of the European Union, having joined in 2007. Bulgaria is not a member of the Eurozone and has the lev as its currency, and Bulgaria is not part of the Schengen area.

Bulgaria is ambitious and wants to hold the presidency of the European Union with verve and wants to be seen as a dynamic and close-knit member of the European family. Bulgaria is covering the presidency with a focus on clean energy and on how to continue (financially) with the union after the departure of the British.

However, Bulgaria also has its own concerns. To date, it is still poor, the individual standard of living is relatively low and life expectancy is also still well below the European average. In addition, Bulgaria is facing criticism from Brussels about alleged corruption.

European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos summoned the Bulgarians to immediately launch an independent investigation. This is partly in response to a black book that was compiled by the European Parliament members Kathleen van Brempt on behalf of the Flemish SP.a – and Kati Piri (on behalf of the Dutch PvdA) and the Flemish Member of Parliament of Turkish origin Güler Turan (on behalf of the Flemish SP.a) about alleged corrupt practices of border police and customs that, according to the report, would mainly affect residents of the European Union of Turkish origin. Officials would ask for money to be paid for the rapid completion of border formalities, as well as a contribution for the disinfection of the vehicles. The MPs collected some 200 testimonies from travellers by land who would have had to undergo these practices.

The Bulgarian police would also be guilty of “collecting” tips in exchange for cancelling traffic fines.
These allegations are not new. Even before Bulgaria’s accession, there were serious concerns about the integrity of the Bulgarian law enforcement apparatus.

The Bulgarian Government, on the other hand, contends that it is taking the necessary steps to counter those alleged practices by installing cameras to monitor the conduct of officials at the borders and by rotating staff at the borders on a regular basis.

As for stopping and collecting tips by the Bulgarian police along the way; your reporter was regularly on the road in Bulgaria and has never had to experience this arbitrariness of the Bulgarian police on the road until now. This is not to say that there is no corruption in the police or in other parts of the government. A law that was put to a vote in parliament to curb corruption has been rejected. So there are serious concerns.

The current government of Bulgaria is pursuing a pro-European course. Bulgaria, through its boyko Borisov, said that the current presidency of the EU is “a great honour and at the same time a great responsibility”.

Anti-Turkish sentiments prevail among the Bulgarian population to this day, which can be attributed to the time when Bulgaria was occupied by the Ottomans and Turkey’s interference in Bulgarian internal affairs. Bulgaria has a Turkish minority of about 9.4% of its 7.3 million inhabitants. These are descendants of the Turkish settlers who settled in Bulgaria during the time of the Ottoman Empire. In 1984, under the then communist regime, Turkish names were banned and mosques were closed. These anti-Turkish sentiments among Bulgarians seem to explain the alleged behaviour of border guards and customs officers towards EU nationals of Turkish origin.

In het afgelopen voorjaar waren er in Bulgarije parlementsverkiezingen. De Turkse president Erdogan mengde zich in de Bulgaarse verkiezingsstrijd.
Erdogan beschuldigde Bulgarije “ondemocratisch te zijn en de Turkse minderheid te onderdrukken”. Vervolgens riep Erdogan
de Turken in Bulgarije op om op de partij Dost te stemmen. Deze partij vertegenwoordigt de Turken die in Bulgarije woonachtig zijn. Erdogan riep eveneens de in Turkije woonachtige Bulgaarse Turken op om in Bulgarije te gaan stemmen op Dost. Op deze manier trachtte Erdogan de invloed binnen van Turkije in Bulgarije te vergroten hetgeen Erdogan niet in dank werd afgenomen door de Bulgaarse bevolking en landsbestuur.

Het leverde een sneer op richting Erdogan van de Bulgaarse president Rumen Radev die Erdogan meedeelde “geen lessen in democratie nodig te hebben en deze ook niet te willen ontvangen, en vooral niet van landen die geen respect hebben voor de rechtsstaat”.

Opvallend is dat in de Europese klaaggezangen richting Bulgarije met geen woord wordt gerept over de (mogelijke) oorzakelijke verbanden.