The co-chairman of "We continue the change - Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) Kiril Petkov shocked the Austrians with his arguments for Schengen. According to him, Bulgarian membership will make food cheaper in Austria. His inappropriate behavior postponed the visit of Prime Minister Academician Nikolay Denkov at the beginning of this month in Vienna, reported a BGNES news correpondent.
Kiril Petkov's strange approach to diplomacy should help Bulgaria to be accepted into the Schengen area by the end of the year. The Chairman of the Committee on the European Union, the Schengen Area and the Eurozone of the National Assembly paid a working visit to Austria on September 28-29. This visit preceded the visit of Prime Minister Academician Nikolay Denkov, which was supposed to take place on October 4, but was postponed on the grounds that Chancellor Karl Nehammer being ill.
In Vienna, Petkov held meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Shallenberg, the chairman of the EU Affairs Commission Dr. Reinhold Lopatka, the chairman of the friendship group "Austria - Bulgaria, Romania" in the Austrian Parliament Dr. Harald Troch.
During their talks, Petkov lobbied for Bulgaria's Schengen membership, which Vienna opposes due to various aspects of migration policy.
The co-chairman of "We continue the change-Democratic Bulgaria" pointed out several important directions with the aim of finding a constructive solution.
Petkov sees the first and most important argument in support of the Bulgarian candidacy in the great geopolitics, that our membership in Schengen will help Ukraine and harm Russia.
"Our accession will strengthen the protection of the external border", emphasized the Bulgarian politician. According to him, this would happen when 200 Bulgarian border guards who are currently on the Bulgarian-Romanian border are released. They will be sent instead to the border with Turkey, which is outside the EU.
Petkov also emphasized that Bulgaria in Schengen will also lead to a decrease in inflation in Austria. This drop would be achieved because the transport of goods and especially food would be made easier and cheaper. "This is how the conditions for reducing inflation will be created", the WCC-DB co-chairman explained.
An equally important argument for Petkov is connectivity. According to him, Bulgarian membership will play an important role in terms of Austria's energy connectivity and security, in purely human terms this means – electricity and gas will flow without passport checks, Kiril Petkov emphasizes.
The Austrian hosts remained surprised by this approach, saying that Petkov's arguments were new to them. But behind this diplomatic courtesy lies serious resentment. Enraged by Petkov's inappropriate behavior, the Austrian side postponed the visit of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Academician Denkov scheduled for October 4. Prime Minister Karl Nehammer's illness was cited as the reason for that. It is no secret for both Bulgarian and Austrian diplomats that he does not have any illness. If the topic were not so important to our society and business, we could joke that the Austrians needed time to calculate how much food prices would fall...
This is not the first international appearance of Petkov, "doing more harm than good" for Bulgaria. Recently, again along the Austrian line, he had to be refuted, this time by the presidential institution. His claims that Vienna had demanded reform of its security services as a condition for Schengen admission were refuted during a visit by Wolfgang Sobotka, president of Austria's National Council. He was in Bulgaria on October 10 at the invitation of the Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament, Rosen Zhelyazkov. /BGNES
