Bulgarian Presidency highly appreciated in Brussels

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, on 29^th of June, expressed high appreciation for the Bulgarian Presidency. Tusk joked that one of the best moments during the Bulgarian Presidency was the speech he delivered in Bulgarian at the opening of the presidency.

They both emphasised that Bulgaria has great merits for putting the topic of the European perspective of the Western Balkans back on the European agenda.

Donald Tusk, President of the European Council: I think it is absolutely clear why the summit in Sofia was so successful, especially for the region. Perhaps here, in Brussels, this is not as obvious as in the region. It is enough, however, to ask our friends in Skopje and also in Greece and you will find out that in Sofia, thanks to Boyko Borissov and before the summit, we achieved a political breakthrough, including for the European future of the entire region.

Jean-Claude Juncker - President of the European Commission: A really great achievement of the Bulgarian Presidency is that Bulgaria changed the atmosphere in the Western Balkans because their European perspective became much more reliable during the leadership of Boyko. Great progress has also been made on the solution for the asylum system because, out of seven legislative proposals by the Commission in February, March 2016, five have been adopted. Five difficult legislative elements. So everything was fine, he said.

After one night of talks, European leaders managed to negotiate a text that was acceptable to everyone. One thing that the European leaders agreed was actually for platforms outside the EU, as well as closed centres within the EU. Closed centres will be on a voluntary basis and migrants will not be compulsorily allocated to the Member States, but also on a voluntary basis.