Solomon Passy Sees Good Opportunities Ahead for Bulgaria, Romania

Lyubomir Gigov, Ivan Lazarov

Solomon Passy makes opening remarks at a Bulgarian-Romanian forum titled "Liberals Shaping the Future: 20 Years of Bulgaria and Romania’s EU Accession Treaty", Sofia, May 29, 2025 (BTA Photo/Hristo Kasabov)

Sofia,

29.05.2025 16:50

(BTA)

"We had and we can still have great objectives, and I see good opportunities ahead for Bulgaria and Romania," former Bulgarian foreign Minister (2001-2005) Solomon Passy said here on Thursday.

Passy, who is founding President of The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, took part in a Bulgarian-Romanian forum titled "Liberals Shaping the Future: 20 Years of Bulgaria and Romania’s EU Accession Treaty".

The Treaty between the EU Member States and Bulgaria and Romania concerning the accession of the two Balkan countries to the European Union was signed in Luxembourg on April 25, 2005 and entered into force on January 1, 2007.

"The big difference between then and now is that there were great objectives at that point. Great objectives give rise to hope and optimism. Without objectives there can be no hope and optimism. At that time, the objectives were for Bulgaria to join the world of the good, the way we figured the good in 2001," Passy pointed out.

"The battle between good and evil, which then was a battle between states, has now moved within the states themselves. Democracy is something good. Dictatorship is evil. The most stylish dictatorship is worse than the most imperfect democracy. Democracy is inspired to self-improve," the speaker commented further.

"Einstein said that the world will not be ruined by villains but by the passive onlookers of villains. Today I am totally at a loss about the boundaries between good and evil, when something that has been impossible throughout my 70-year-long life is now possible: seeing the US, Russia and North Korea to vote together at the UN. This was absurd, this was something that nobody could imagine. Today we can already imagine it. Whether this is good or evil, we will judge it separately," Passy went on to say.

The discussion was organized by the European Liberal Forum and the Liberal Institute for Political Analyses (LIPA), with the participation of the Liberal Integration Foundation from Bulgaria and O Tara ca Afara (OTCA) and the Institute for Freedom and Democracy (ILD) from Romania.

/KT/