The ruling coalition is neither for peace nor for war, but for getting out of the political crisis. This was stated in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio by the chairman of the parliamentary defense committee, Hristo Gadzhev from GERB.
We need to make a distinction between peacekeeping and peace-enforcing forces, he pointed out and expressed doubt that the conversation about sending Bulgarian military personnel will be reopened, because:
"There is a clear understanding – I do not think that Bulgaria would participate in such a type of mission. It was unanimous. All political forces, from the most Euro-Atlantic to the pro-Russian, are of this opinion."
In order for there to be peace negotiations, not only Ukraine, but also Russia must want to be at the negotiating table. At the moment, Russia does not want to negotiate, believes Gadzhev. According to him, "Russia must be forced to sit at the negotiating table", but "the question is where the US position will go".
"From the point of view of Europe, it is more important not how to reach a truce, but to reach a final peace."
In the last 30 years, no one has thought that there would be a large-scale war on European territory and "more or less all European countries have lived in serious comfort, respectively, we are more or less unprepared".
The Bulgarian defense industry is still predominantly by Warsaw Pact standards. If we do not integrate this serious industry into European processes, we risk remaining on the outside. That is why it is important to reorient it now, commented Hristo Gadzhev in the program "Predi visi".
Bulgarian industry risks being left on the sidelines because we have lost a lot of time, he emphasized.
Of these 800 billion that the EC is offering for rearmament - 650 billion are national funds, the second option is to use the cohesion funds, and the third - from the European Investment Bank, the chairman of the parliamentary defense committee specified.
However, most member states do not want to touch the structural funds and prefer to use the funds from the PVP, because on a European scale, the PVP is heading for failure, Gadzhev pointed out and gave examples:
"We are on the second payment, but Germany is also on the second payment, the Netherlands is on the first payment. At the European level, 72% of the measures set have not been implemented. There is a real resource in the PVP that will not be used anyway."
The Covid crisis is behind us. We currently have a security crisis and the instruments need to be reviewed, he added. In his words, the connection between the PVP and the EC's plans is logical.