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Published online by NOVINITE.com on 31 July 2005 POLITICAL TURMOIL SETS AT RISK BULGARIA'S EU ENTRY - EXPERTS Bulgaria's scheduled accession to the European Union in 2007 will be delayed if parliament fails to elect a new government in the next two months, according to euro-integration experts. A delay in Bulgaria's EU accession is 100% guaranteed if early elections prove to be the only exit from the political turmoil that hit the country, say experts from the College of Europe Alumni Association in Bulgaria. The association is a non-governmental non profit making organisation reuniting natural persons who have graduated from the College of Europe in Bruges - Belgium, or its branch in Natolin near Warsaw - Poland, and whose professional, public and creative activity is related to various aspects of European integration and co-operation. The experts are accompanying the EU traveling exhibition "Europe on Wheels", which arrived Friday in the town of Svoge. Situated some forty kilometres north-west from the capital Sofia, Svoge is the eleventh leg of "Europe on Wheels" country-wide tour. The initiative was launched for the second year in a row in Sofia on July 15 and has already visited ten small towns in northern and north-western Bulgaria, including Etropole, Apriltsi, Oryahovo, Nikopol, Kula, Belogradchik. People from the northern border regions enquired about the future of the customs and the status of the border police, the possibility for building a highway bridge from the town of Nikopol on the Bulgarian side of the Danube. According to the experts the EU accession biggest advantage for the people from small towns will be clear rules and mechanisms for observing them. The colourful truck "Europe on Wheels", decked out with symbols of the European Union, delivered to the picturesque town of Svoge a treasure of information materials about EU institutions, programs and history, as well the process of Bulgaria's integration.
SOCIALISTS' REP: BULGARIA WITH 10% CHANCE TO JOIN EU IN 2007 These are the country's chances, disregarding the complicated political situation, said Paskalev, a representative of the Coalition for Bulgaria (CB). With the given unsteady process for government formation the probability for EU integration delay jumps to 100%, he said. In his words there are four ways to cope with the political crisis. The first one is if mandate of outgoing incumbents Simeon II National Movement (SIINM) succeeds, but only after "adequate" negotiations with CB and the ethnic Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). The second scenario is king's party to try to form a rightist coalition, which would be a hard task due to the differences in the right wing. The third one is President to hand in the third mandate to MRF. And the fourth and the worst one are early elections, Paskalev concluded. A similar prognosis was made Saturday by euro-integration experts. A delay in Bulgaria's EU accession is 100% guaranteed if early elections prove to be the only exit from the political turmoil that hit the country, said experts from the College of Europe Alumni Association in Bulgaria. |