Vigenin: The European Union has to defend the interests of European citizens with more self-confidence

“Through common efforts we need to make sure the European Union defends the interests of citizens with self-confidence and clear positions.” This was stated by Bulgarian MEP from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament Kristian Vigenin on Nova News television.

“The European and the Bulgarian parliament are alike to a large extent. In both there are similar majorities and minorities, there is a loud opposition and a moderate pro-European majority, there is confrontation. In the past week the European Parliament showed itself to be a living parliament, different opinions were heard, criticism was heard of the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and of the Commission itself. But this time in her speech she signalled more ambition in her actions, which is in fact what European citizens want to hear as well,” the MEP emphasised. He noted, however, that the problem is how the pledges are turned into action: “Speeches have to lead to concrete results in the fight against poverty, in social activities, for quality jobs, a competitive economy, and to more security through our own efforts. We also have to ask ourselves how this speech corresponds to the humiliations we went through in recent months, the trade deal with the United States and the handling of the conflict in Ukraine. There were contradictory messages too, such as the pledge that we will free ourselves from dirty fuels from Russia, because we need clean, green and cheap energy produced at home. At the same time we are making a deal with the United States for the same dirty fuels, which are also much more expensive, but there it is no longer a problem. The double standards are noticeable and have to be overcome.”

On the legislation being drawn up on critical medicines, Kristian Vigenin explained that the idea for it arose after COVID, when it turned out that the European Union is too dependent on imports of medicines from various regions, which creates a threat to health security. The aim now is to bring the production of such medicines back to Europe, but also to build the necessary stocks of them, with priority in tenders going to European producers and to the lowest price. He said that the national specifics of countries have to be taken into account when setting the criteria for the tenders, because health systems are different and budgets are different too. “With centralised tenders there is a risk that instead of getting cheaper medicines for everyone, the opposite happens, and in smaller countries with lower budgets such as Bulgaria the price ends up higher and there are shortages of medicines. Direct negotiation allows our country to get lower prices with the big pharmaceutical companies, because they understand what our budget constraints are. But if we hold a tender together with the big countries, with big health budgets, it may turn out that the common price will be higher for us,” Vigenin explained the risk. That is why, as a member of the Committee on Public Health, he will insist on more flexibility and on these factors being taken into account, in coordination with the Bulgarian government, so that the interests of citizens are protected.

On the fifth no-confidence vote tabled against the government, Kristian Vigenin commented that a more moderate tone is needed from the governing parties and more constructive criticism from the opposition. He warned that it will be a mistake if those calling for the vote skate over the surface and the governing parties do not use the occasion to draw their conclusions, because the topic is very important for the whole of society. The MEP noted realistically that the topic of justice and home affairs is an old Achilles heel for Bulgaria, that the progress of the country is not dramatic and that there is certainly a lot more work ahead in this area.