Galery

1

The Prime Minister George Papandreou is on official visit to Bulgaria today, where he will meet the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, will attend the first high level board for cooperation between Bulgaria and Greece, and later will meet the President Georgi Parvanov. The high level board between the two governments is similar to the one established between Greece and Turkey and the aim is to launch a strategic cooperation in economy, energy, culture and transport. It is expected that the Board will include nine ministers from both countries, namely the Ministries of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Energy, Transport, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Culture.

It is expected the discussion between George Papandreou and Boyko Borisov to turn mostly around economic issues and particularly the banking sector, as Bulgaria is interested very much in the development of the Greek banks because of their strong presence in the country, says Ta Nea Newspaper.

Mr. Papandreou and Mr. Borisov will sign a joint declaration at 1 o’clock pm.  And agreements on defence, interior, economy, transport, culture, agriculture, tourism and others will be signed in their presence. The visit of the Greek delegation is the highest of the diplomatic initiatives that the country develops with Bulgaria on energy issues and especially for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline.

On its part, Bulgaria is expressing strong objections to this project, arguing that it would withdraw from the agreement and will not participate in its implementation but it seems willing to change its position. Analysts say it is a “cruel poker game”, which aims to ensure the greatest possible benefit from the project, says Vima Newspaper.

Washington continues its pressure on Sofia to withdraw from the project because it is trying to build a rival pipeline Samsun-Cheyhan and the Russian party does not hide it is displeased of Bulgaria’s reactions and considers its behavior challenging, said Ta Nea Newspaper. It added yesterday that the president of the company Tranieft - Mikhail Barkov - said that Bulgaria has agreed to pay tribute to the construction of the pipeline, which is worth € 4.88 million, but noted that: “Our Bulgarian partners continue to explore the project content in terms of economic benefit and ecological hazards, but according to us, there is understanding on their part that it is not appropriate to withdraw from the project.” According to the president Barkov both sides have agreed the economical structure of the project to be presented first in Moscow, in the first ten days of August.

The Greek delegation is reasonably optimistic as its opinion is that the Bulgarian party has largely eased its position on the implementation of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis project. The Greek side does not even exclude the options to reach agreement on this subject.
 
The ministers participating in the Greek delegation are George Papakonstantinou, Evangelos Venizelos, Michalis Chrisochoidis, Dimitris Repas, Dimitris Drutsas, Tina Birbili, Andreas Loverdos, Pavlos Geroulanos, Markos Bolaris and George Petalotis will sign agreements on tourism, energy, economics and labor relations.