site.btaParliament Ratifies Partnership Agreement with Organisation of African, Caribbean, Pacific States

Parliament Friday ratified in two readings at a single sitting the Partnership Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, of the other part. 

According to the sponsor, the Council of Ministers, the agreement establishes a renewed framework for relations between the parties, aligned with priorities and working methods across various areas. It sets out common principles and covers six key areas of cooperation: democracy and human rights; sustainable economic growth and development; climate change; human and social development; peace and security; and migration and mobility. The agreement does not entail specific financial commitments, as it does not specify any amount of financial assistance to be provided by the EU to the Organisation.

The Vazrazhdane party voiced opposition to the ratification. “It is not that the agreement is fatal for our country. We neither gain nor lose anything. Our statehood is becoming a fiction. Еvery week, without exception, we pass at least one bill because otherwise we would be punished by Brussels,” a party representative said. Bulgarian statehood is “vegetating and decaying,” and the agreement is merely one of the symptoms, the MP added.