Bulgarian President Calls for 2016 to be Year of Stability, Reforms

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev called for 2016 to be a year of stability and reforms.

In an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on Friday, Plevneliev highlighted that the next year will be decisive for the healthcare and judicial reforms.

As regards the amendments to the constitution concerning the reform of the judiciary, he identified them as “a small step forward in the right direction”, but the most important was yet to come.

Plevneliev said that there could be no reforms without stability, while the lack of reforms would make stability so fragile that it would become virtually absent.

According to him, some of the planned reforms were implemented in 2015, but the list of reforms should be longer for next year.

In his opinion, the greatest crisis in the country was the lack of confidence in politicians and institutions.

According to him, it would have been better if the parliament had adopted all the constitutional amendments concerning the judicial reform, which had been agreed earlier this year.

The Head of State expressed hope that this could be reversed next year if MPs have realised that the judicial reform is the “reform of the reforms” as without it everything else will be meaningless.

As regards the new Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, who was approved by parliament on Friday, the president assured that her nomination was made by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, but he stood firmly behind her.

Plevneliev noted that he has established good dialogue with Borisov, the two are meeting each other on a regular basis and have good cooperation although sometimes they have different stances.

The president was proud of his pro-European policy and assured that he will not back down on it.

In Plevneliev's words, his firm stance on the Ukrainian crisis did not mean that he was against the cultural achievements of Russia, but rather against the Russian government, which according to him was violating European rules.

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