Finance Minister: Russian Propaganda in Bulgaria Suggests that We are Second-Class EU Citizens

"Part of the Russian propaganda in Bulgaria is the suggestion that Bulgarians are second-class citizens of the EU. With our entry into Schengen, this would change," said Finance Minister Asen Vassilev in an interview with the newspaper Die Welt.

According to Vassilev, it is economically unprofitable for Central and Western Europe for Bulgaria and Romania to be outside the zone without border control.

"Every day, 4,000 trucks cross the Bulgarian-Turkish border in the direction of Western Europe, but stay for days at the future internal border with Romania. This makes the transported goods more expensive," Vassilev explains.

The EU must develop a system for the legal reception of migrants and the evaluation of the workers it needs, the finance minister added.

Asen Vassilev also told Die Welt that the 20 percent additional tax imposed on Russian gas transit through Bulgaria will reduce Gazprom's profit and make supplies more expensive, which in turn will make importing Russian gas unprofitable for countries like Austria and Hungary.

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