Bulgarian Top Diplomat to Raise Migration Issue in London

Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristian Vigenin. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Kristian Vigenin, is in London and will meet Thursday his British counterpart, William Hague.

The Bulgarian side is expected to raise once again the issue of free movement of people in the EU.

During his meetings in London, Vigenin has emphasized that placing barriers to free movement violates the sensitive balance in the internal market and leades to reduced competitiveness and weakening growth opportunities in the EU.

London urges the European Union to change its rules in order to limit migration.

The intentions of the British Government to impose an annual quota of accepting only 75 000 people from other EU countries has been met with strong criticism by the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

The Guardian wrote the following on the occasion of Vigenin's visit:

"Britain faced further pressure on Wednesday night when Kristian Vigenin, the Bulgarian foreign minister who attended the Open Europe conference in London, echoed Barroso's concerns about populist messages from Britain.

Vigenin, who met the Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz, told the Guardian: "We have seen a debate which was dominated by populist messages and which was not grounded in the real statistical data.

"We need to warn that creating obstacles for one of the four EU freedoms [movement of labour] will make us less competitive. The whole debate is how to make us more competitive.

"I am confident that after 1 January, when the broader public saw there was no influx of immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania, these fears that were not grounded will disappear and the whole debate will become focused on the real issues."

Full article read HERE.

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