site.btaDecember 16, 1995: 30 Years Ago Bulgaria Formally Applies for EU Entry

Bulgaria formally applied for accession to the European Union 30 years ago on Tuesday, on December 16, 1995.

This event and the preceding developments were covered in BTA's Home News and International News desks in their bulletins of November and December 1995:

“Bulgaria Submits Application for EU Full Membership

Madrid, December 16, 1995 (Special BTA correspondent Atanas Matev) - 'On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria, I have the honour to inform you that Bulgaria is submitting an application for full membership of the European Union.'

A letter with this text, signed by Prime Minister Zhan Videnov, was handed by Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski at a brief ceremony in Madrid today to his Spanish counterpart Javier Solana, who holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of 1995.

The ceremony took place on the second day of a regular six-monthly meeting of the heads of State and government of the EU Member States. Representatives of the EU associated countries of Eastern Europe were also invited to attend.

Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev was also present at the ceremony. His trip to Madrid was assessed by sources close to him as a desire to stress the consensus on Bulgaria's accession to the European Union despite differences between the presidential institution and the cabinet on other foreign-policy issues.

'I am very glad that Mr Pirinski just officially handed Bulgaria's application. For us, this is a major event. What pleases me most is the consensus that exists on this subject among all political forces, government institutions and, I believe, across Bulgarian society as a whole. God willing, in the near future we will be able to present our application for NATO with the same consensus,' Dr Zhelev said after the ceremony.

Together with the letter, also submitted an eight-page memorandum in which the Government sets out the reasons for Bulgaria's aspiration to be admitted to the European Union. There is full agreement within the country on membership, established as early as December 1990 in a Grand National Assembly resolution and confirmed two years later upon the ratification of the Bulgaria-EU Association Agreement and on other subsequent occasions, the memorandum notes.

'By this document the country does not assume any new commitments to the European Union, it is a formal declaration of a decision that has already been taken in principle on several occasions,' Pirinski emphasized, talking to Bulgarian journalists. He expects the negotiations on Bulgaria's application EU membership negotiations to begin in late 1997 or early 1998. In any case, these negotiations are unlikely to start before the end of the EU Intergovernmental Conference, which is to be convened in Italy at the end of March 1996 and will last for about a year. At this conference, the EU is expected to discuss and adopt its enlargement policy in terms of admission of new members from Eastern Europe.

'As is known, proposals have recently emerged in European Union circles for negotiations with Eastern European countries seeking membership to be conducted 'in groups'. Our position is entirely clear and is also formulated in the memorandum: we insist that negotiations with applicant countries should begin simultaneously,' Pirinski emphasized.

When Bulgaria's application was handed, this same position was supported by Javier Solana. He assured that there would be an opinion from the European Union Commission in favour of a simultaneous start of negotiations and of a simultaneous presentation of its opinion on the applications of the countries wishing to join the Union.

Georgi Pirinski dismissed allegations that Bulgaria had lagged behind in submitting its application for membership. 'We proceeded with today's formal step after achieving sufficient inner conviction that we are in a position to take full-fledged participation in the accession negotiations,' he said. 'These negotiations are in a very intensive dialogue in which positions are firmly stood up for.'

President Zhelev and Minister Pirinski were invited to lunches by the Spanish hosts of the EU: one lunch for heads of State and government, and another lunch for foreign ministers. Addressing his counterparts, the chief Bulgarian diplomat once again listed the reasons why Bulgaria is applying for EU membership. He pointed out that Bulgaria's stabilizing role in the Balkan Peninsula makes it a partner that will be solving rather than giving rise to problems for the EU."

On November 29, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov made a statement relayed by BTA according to which that on the same day the Government had launched a procedure for drawing up the official application for Bulgaria's accession to the European Union as a full member. "By this extremely important step, the Government once again confirms that Bulgaria's EU membership is our shared strategic goal which is consistent with the country's national interests. There is full consensus on this key issue for our future, both in society and among the political forces."

On November 30, the Government adopted a decision on the submission of an application for EU membership, approving the texts of the application and of the memorandum that accompanies and reasons the application. The Council of Ministers mandated Prime Minister Videnov to hand the Bulgarian application during the meeting of the heads of State and government of the EU Member States and associated countries in Madrid on December 16.

Under the Maastricht Treaty, the application has to be submitted to the European Council, which should adopt a unanimous decision on after consulting the European Commission and after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, which passes its resolution by an absolute majority. The conditions for membership are agreed in a bilateral treaty between the Member States and the applicant country.

On December 14, Videnov cancelled his trip to Madrid because of the debate on the 1996 budget that Parliament was to open on the following day. Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski was to deliver the application and the memorandum. The delegation included Deputy Foreign Minister Irina Bokova and the Head of the Foreign Ministry's European Integration Directorate Emil Valev.

On December 1, the National Assembly passed a resolution supporting Bulgaria's formal application for accession to the European Union. The only vote against came from Vasil Mihaylov MP of the Union of Democratic Forces, who told BTA that he had voted against not because he opposed the country's EU bid but in protest against a breach of parliamentary rules which, in his view, had been committed by National Assembly Chair Blagovest Sendov, who refused to put to the vote his motion to oblige the Government also to submit an application for full membership of NATO, after Asen Agov had pointed out from the rostrum that Mihaylov's motion had not been coordinated with the parliamentary group.

"During the debate, MPs of different parliamentary groups traded strongly worded exchanges. Lawmakers of the Union of Democratic Forces, the Popular Union and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms accused the Left of opposing Bulgaria's accession to both the EU and NATO and of claiming that its legislative activity and the actions of the Zhan Videnov Cabinet would hinder the country's integration into the EU," BTA reported.

On December 10, 1999, at the EU summit in Helsinki, the European Council adopted a decision on the start of negotiations with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania and Malta.

On February 15, 2000, the accession negotiations with Bulgaria were officially opened in Brussels.

On December 12 and 13, 2003, at the EU summit in Brussels, the heads of State and government adopted a decision on Bulgaria's admission to the EU on January 1, 2007.

On April 13, 2005, the European Parliament approved Bulgaria's EU Accession Treaty, which was signed in Luxembourg on April 25, 2005. The Treaty was ratified by Bulgaria's Parliament on May 11, 2005 and, after being ratified by all EU Member States, entered into force on January 1, 2007 - the date on which Bulgaria became part of the European Union.