Bulgaria Unanimously Welcomes Croatia to EU

Bulgaria in EU | February 17, 2012, Friday // 12:04|  views

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov. File photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Parliament unanimously ratified Croatia's EU accession treaty on Friday.

All 181 Bulgarian MPs present (out of a total of 240) voted in favor of the ratification. Croatian Parliamentary Speaker Boris Sprem was present at the vote and expressed his gratitude to Bulgaria's lawmakers.

"Croatia's success is a very clear signal to the Balkan countries, whose right place historically and culturally is within the big European family," Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov stated in the Parliament.

The Foreign Minister said "Welcome to the European Union" in Croatian.

The EU may not appear particularly attractive right now, but the membership of the Southeastern European countries in the bloc "offers the best possible future", noted Sergey Stanishev, leader of the left-wing oppositional Bulgarian Socialist Party.

"People say that there is no friendship in politics but only interests. However, the Croatian-Bulgarian relations are friendly," Boris Sprem declared. The Croatian Parliamentary speaker pointed out that his country is aware of the difficulties ahead of it, but is ready to cope with them.

The accession treaty for Croatia was signed at the European Council last December and mandates that if it is ratified by all parties, Croatia will become an EU member in July 2013.

The process of ratification by all member states should be completed by June 30 2013.

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Tags: Croatia, accession treaty, EU, European Union, ratification, EU membership, Nikolay Mladenov

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