Former long-serving Prime Minister of Bulgaria and leader of the largest party GERB Boyko Borisov refused to support the signing of a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine after the interim Prime Minister of the country appealed to parliament to make a decision on this issue. This is reported by Euractiv, writes UNN.
The current interim Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Dimitar Ganchev, promised in October to join an initiative involving more than twenty countries and the EU, which provides for the conclusion of a security agreement with Ukraine.
It was expected that Ganchev would sign the agreement with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during their visit to Brussels on Thursday, but the interim government refused and sought a mandate from parliament, where GERB Borisov has the most seats.
Only six out of 27 EU member states - Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Malta and Cyprus - have not signed such an agreement.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, GERB has supported the provision of military assistance to Ukraine, and Borisov himself has often emphasized this support as proof of his party's pro-Western position. But, according to Borisov, the situation has now changed. "Just six months ago, we would have categorically supported such an agreement," Borisov said, adding that such support is now equivalent to "buying a factory on September 9".
The correct popular expression is "to buy a factory on September 8", which means to make a very bad deal. On September 9, 1944, the Soviet army occupied Bulgaria, which boded nothing good for factory owners.
Borisov explained that the reason for this was the intensification of the discussion in Europe and the USA about achieving peace in Ukraine. He added that "we will work to restore or the peace process" in Ukraine, but stressed that this should be a regular government that "signs a mutually beneficial treaty".
Borisov did not explain what he sees as the lack of mutual benefit in the proposed agreement.
The GERB leader also stated that the interim government does not need a parliamentary mandate to sign an agreement with Ukraine.
Reminder
On October 25, it was reported that the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Ihor Zhovkva, held the first round of negotiations with the Bulgarian side on the conclusion of a bilateral security agreement at the request of the President of Ukraine and the Head of the Office of the Head of State, as well as in implementation of the G7 Joint Declaration.