09.04.2022
National corruption is a tool that foreign states like Russia employ to control domestic stability and to create dependencies. That is why the fight against corruption is so important. This was the message of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov in his intervention at the Delphi Economic Forum VII. The Prime Minister was firm that a serious discussion about this matter is needed at national but also at regional, European and global level as the current situation, the war in Ukraine, has clearly shown the nature of the regime that exists in Russia and that no one wants to be dependent on.
The Prime Minister exemplified his statement with corruption in Bulgaria. Kiril Petkov noted that Bulgaria is one of the countries with the strongest dependence on Russia for its energy sector while in the last ten years it did not do enough to achieve diversification. The Prime Minister compared the TurkStream to the gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) and stressed that some ten years later the IGB is not yet completed whereas the implementation of the former which is several-fold costlier and which does not bring any real diversification moved at a fast pace. The Prime Minister assured of the intensive ongoing work to complete the interconnector by midyear to give the country real diversification that would be of benefit for the whole region.
Prime Minister Kiril Petkov stressed the importance of joint efforts in the fight against corruption and misdeeds, as well as in the energy sector. We must uphold a strong and agreed position, he said firmly. In his words, transparency is among the key principles along that pathway. In the Bulgarian Prime Minister’s view, it would be good to have an opportunity, at European level, to investigate not only misuse of EU funds, but also the fight against money laundering and cross-border crime, for instance.
In his statement Prime Minister Kiril Petkov pointed out that the risk of instability in the Western Balkans is another potential channel of the Russian foreign policy. For this reason, strong prevention actions are needed in our region. It is time to show together that the Balkans are a symbol of coordination, the Bulgarian Prime Minister said firmly.
