WikiLeaks: Bulgarian EU Envoy - Pusher, Good with Promises not with Results

Bulgaria's Permanent Representative to EU, Boyko Kotsev. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Diplomatic cable of the US embassy in Sofia, dated September 21, 2007, revealed on WikiLeaks and provided to the project for investigative journalism www.bivol.bg.

The cable brings out details about the way Bulgaria's Permanent Representative to EU, Boyko Kotsev, appointed in August 2007 by President, Georgi Parvanov, is viewed by former American Ambassador, John Beyrle.

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2017

TAGS: BU EUN PGOV PREL

SUBJECT: BULGARIA NAMES DEPUTY INTERIOR MINISTER ENVOY TO EU

SOFIA 00001155  001.2 OF 002

Classified By: Ambassador John Beyrle, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

1.  (C) SUMMARY: President Parvanov has appointed Deputy Minister of

Interior Boyko Kotzev as Bulgaria's new permanent representative to

the EU, a position viewed as one of the country's most important

diplomatic post abroad.  Kotzev, 51, is a career diplomat with twenty

years of experience who has held a number of EU-related posts,

including Deputy Head of Bulgaria's Mission to the EU.  He was

appointed Deputy Minister of Interior in charge of EU integration and

international cooperation in 2001, and retained his post after the

current Socialist-led government took over in 2005.  He was named

Ambassador to the EU because of his good ties with the ruling

Socialists and solid experience in EU matters and rule of law, still

closely monitored by Brussels.  Our experience with Kotzev has not

always been positive.  He is generous with promises but not with

follow through, and certainly not with results.  Kotzev's appointment

triggered some criticism by the opposition and media, related mostly

to the figure of his father, the longest-serving chief of Bulgaria's

communist foreign intelligence service. END SUMMARY

2.  (SBU) Kotzev, who was appointed Ambassador to the EU with a

presidential decree August 14, is expected to depart for Brussels in

the first half of October.  He will be Bulgaria's first permanent

representative to the EU.  Officials here say Kotzev was chosen for

the key post because of his extensive experience in EU-related

matters as well as rule of law, a problematic area for Bulgaria,

which is still closely monitored by the EU.  A diplomat by training,

Kotzev has specialized in law in The Hague, London and Geneva, and

has served as Deputy Director of the MFA's European Integration

directorate and Deputy Head of Bulgaria's Mission to the EU.  In his

capacity of Deputy Minister of Interior, Kotzev was responsible for

negotiations on the "Judiciary and Internal Affairs" chapter of

Bulgaria's EU accession treaty.  Kotzev is politically acceptable for

both President Georgi Parvanov and Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin,

the key decision-makers on diplomatic appointments, and also has good

ties with the Socialists who dominate the incumbent center-left

government.  In mid-2005, the Socialists nominated Kotzev for Justice

Minister in the first government line-up proposed by incumbent PM

Stanishev, which failed to win approval in parliament.  He

subsequently retained his position as Deputy Interior Minister in the

three-party government.

3.  (U) Born on June 8, 1956, in Sofia, Kotzev earned a degree in

International Law from the Moscow State University of International

Relations in 1980.  He specialized in Public International Law at the

UN International Court of Justice in The Hague in 1983, in Public

International Law at the International Law Commission in Geneva in

1984, and in European Legal Integration at the Civil Service College

in London in 1995.  Kotzev has 20-years work experience at the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  He served as Deputy Director of the

European Integration Directorate and as Deputy Head of the Mission of

the Embassy of Bulgaria in Zimbabwe 1989-1993.  He occupied the post

of Deputy Head of MFA's International Law Department, 1993-1995.  He

was Deputy Head of the Mission of the Embassy of Bulgaria to the EU

1995-1998.  In August 2001, he was appointed Deputy Minister of

Interior in charge international relations and EU integration.

Kotzev speaks English, French, and Russian. He is married, and has

two children.

4. (C) His impressive professional CV notwithstanding, Kotzev's

appointment as Ambassador to Brussels triggered criticism in

Bulgaria.  The reputable business weekly Capital critically noted

that EU officials who worked with Kotzev had mixed feelings about his

performance.  The EU negotiating team in Brussels had a parallel

assessment, which was symmetrical to the lackluster performance by

the Ministry of Interior on Justice and Home Affairs, widely

criticized in the EU Commission's last two monitoring reports on

Bulgaria in September 2006 and in June 2007.  EC experts who wrote

the reports complained about poor cooperation on the part of the MOI

officials who had denied them access to information.  At that time

Deputy Minister Kotzev was responsible for EU integration issues.

According to a high-level EC official quoted by Capital,

Kotzev was capable of "Byzantine tricks" and his habit of avoiding

clear answers is expected to win him many enemies in Brussels.

5.  (C) Domestic criticism to Kotzev's appointment was related mostly

to the figure of his late father, the longest serving director of the

communist-era foreign intelligence service.  There have been

allegations that Vassil Kotzev was involved in one of the most

notorious operations of the communist State Security, the infamous

"umbrella murder" of dissident writer Georgi Markov, killed with a

poison-tipped umbrella in 1978 in London.  The opposition

center-right party of ex-PM Ivan Kostov argued that Boyko Kotzev was

hardly the best choice of Bulgaria's face to the EU.  Kotzev's

brother, Emil Kotzev, serves as director of Technoexportstroi, a

major construction company that has been involved in a number of

large infrastructure projects in recent years.  The company is the

Bulgarian concession holder of the Trakia highway project, which has

been marred by alleged corruption.  Despite allegations of undue

influence there has been no evidence that Emil Kotzev has profited

from his brother's position in the government.  According to

opposition MP Atanas Atanassov, the former chief of Bulgaria's

counter-intelligence service, Boyko Kotzev has served as an informal

legal advisor to the late Stoil Slavov.  Slavov, who was killed in a

bomb explosion in 2004, was co-founder of one of the major organized

crime groups in Bulgaria, SIC.  Independent sources have not

confirmed this allegation, nor has it come out in the media.

6.  (C) COMMENT:  An experienced diplomat, Kotzev is also A perfect

bureaucratic careerist.  He appears pleasant and eager to Please, but

has delivered more promises and excuses than actual results.  A

notable example is when, several years ago, representatives of U.S.

law enforcement agencies and the Embassy joined efforts to propose a

law enforcement cooperation agreement to the MOI.  Kotzev, the MOI

lead on the project, made promises but the document was never signed.

In this and other situations, Kotzev would not acknowledge whether

he had the authority or power to deliver what he had promised.

Kotsev has been a loyal stalwart for Interior Minister Petkov, a

Socialist party baron, now battling the Prime Minister over internal

ministry and intelligence reforms.  Kotsev's appointment to Brussels

owes more to internal party mechanics and politics than to sheer

qualifactions.  He is more tactician than strategist and unlikely to

burnish Bulgaria's standing in the EU.  In short, Bulgaria missed a

chance to impress.  Our advice for those who work with him is "trust

but verify."

BEYRLE

The original cable can be found HERE.

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