Governments of Bulgaria, Greece to Hold Second Joint Meeting in Autumn
The governments of Bulgaria and Greece are preparing to hold a second joint meeting in September, Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas told Bulgarian reporters here on Wednesday.
The two governments had their first joint meeting last summer in Sofia and are now preparing a second one. It will take place in Greece, probably in Athens or a location in Northern Greece, possibly Thessaloniki. It will be sometime in early autumn but a specific date has not been set as yet.
Droutsas said that the two countries share perfect relations and they have entered a new stage. He stressed the close personal relations between Prime Ministers Boyko Borissov and George Papandreou, as well as those between Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov and himself.
In his meeting with the Bulgarian reporters, Droutsas also underscored the close cooperation and coordination between the two countries on Balkan issues and especially the European prospects of the Western Balkans. He briefed the journalists on the Greek initiative for what is called Agenda 2014: in the first half of 2014 Greece will hold the rotating EU Presidency and will make its priority the European integration of the Western Balkans.
In Droutsas' words, Greece has the feeling that the process of EU intergration of the Balkan countries has lost its intensity since 2003 when Greece had the EU Presidency. Completing the integration process in 2018 is one of the optimistic scenarios which Greece will want to push through during its 2014 Presidency.
The top Greek diplomat noted that close cooperation also exists between Bulgaria and Greece in respect of the Middle East and North Africa. The two countries have an identical approach to the Libya issue and believe that it is imperative to start as a matter of emergency a political process to end the crisis because military intervention alone will not produce the desired effect, said the Foreign Minister. (Source: BTA)