19/03/2024 Rosen Zhelyazkov at a conference in Vienna: European integration is the best response to the risks to stability and security in the Danube region

19/03/2024

Bulgaria's position is clear - European integration is the best response to the risks to stability and security in the Danube region. This is what National Assembly President Rosen Zhelyazkov said in his speech to the participants in the Ninth Speakers Conference within the Austrian Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). He made a statement on one of the main topics of the forum - "Security in the Danube region".

Bulgaria actively supports the EU accession of the Western Balkan countries and the Eastern European partners in accordance with the principle of own merits, Rosen Zhelyazkov stressed. According to him, as the integration processes progress, new opportunities for effective cooperation will open up within the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. Opportunities for joint operations, risk analysis, training of experts and the establishment of new and more efficient coordination centres will be improved, Parliament President specified.

Rosen Zhelyazkov stressed that strong messages of unity in the EU's support for Ukraine are needed. The EU should continue to provide Ukraine and its people with all necessary political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support, he added.

The topic of security in the Danube Region requires us to repeat again and again - we expect a quick agreement on the Fund for Assistance to Ukraine under the European Peace Facility, the President of the National Assembly said. Rosen Zhelyazkov noted that missile and drone attacks against the Danube port cities are completely unacceptable and lead to further escalation of tensions, destruction, civilian casualties and obstruction of grain trade. We strongly support the Austrian Presidency view that it is necessary to expand the capacity of Ukrainian and Romanian Danube ports and to repair the damage caused by the Russian attacks, he stressed.

In recent years, the topic of security has taken on new worrying dimensions - Russia's ongoing aggressive war against Ukraine, repeated military strikes on Danube port infrastructure and the threat to freedom of navigation on the Danube River, the environmental threat to the Danube ecosystem, Rosen Zhelyazkov said. This is an incentive for decisive and unwavering action on our part, and our response must be swift and firm, he said.