Kristian Vigenin: The European Union creates opportunities, it is up to us to use them

„Bulgaria gains many opportunities from its membership in the European Union, including in terms of its economic development. It is up to us, however, how far we make use of them.“ This was stated by the head of the Delegation of the Bulgarian Socialists in the European Parliament Kristian Vigenin at the public discussion: “Bulgaria in a United Europe: achievements and challenges”, which was held at Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski“. The discussion looked for answers to the questions of what the main achievements arising from Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union are, and what the main challenges are before the country’s development as a full part of the European integration system.

„One of the core ideas of the EU is for everyone to have equal opportunities, for social differences to shrink. Here we have deep social stratification, which provokes euroscepticism. The hardships provoke the thinking that if it were not for the EU, we would have been more successful and richer“, the MEP commented, and went on with the hypothesis: „Let us assume that tomorrow we are on our own. There is no EU. Where will we be? Will we be safer and better protected? No. If we speak only on our own behalf, will our voice be heard more strongly than if we speak in one voice with another 26 EU member states? Again no.“

The practical results of membership

Vigenin drew attention to some of the most practical results of EU membership. „I am from the generation that waited in queues in front of the embassies to get an entry visa for a member state. Today you travel to European cities the way you travel to Bulgarian ones, and you may not even notice the borders. You can study and work , wherever you wish within the EU. You use international mobile services in the EU at the price of national ones. Otherwise, sending a single photo from Istanbul would cost you 150 leva, because 1 MB is 19 leva without VAT.“

„Bulgaria’s big problems are that we are at the bottom in terms of incomes, the trains move at the speed of the start of the last century, we cannot build our motorways, we cannot count on justice in the judicial system, people are promoted not according to competence but according to loyalty to political and business circles. But these problems were not created for us by the EU, they are our own, and at the bottom of it is the corruption that stops us from developing“, Kristian Vigenin noted.

Taking part in the discussion were MEP Nikola Minchev, the head of the Bureau of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Sofia Maria Simeonova and the lecturers in EU law at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivan Stoynev and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hristo Hristev.