What Andrey spoke about.

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, as we gather here today to address the discharge procedure of 2022, I am compelled to reflect upon the extraordinary challenges that we as a Union faced during that time. I still remember vividly the issues that we had to tackle: the consequences of COVID, the beginning of the war – everything happened back then. I kept my promise, with a well-structured report, which focused only on the work of the Parliament, having in mind what happened during that year. In the face of such challenges, it was imperative that we, as the European Parliament, demonstrated leadership and consistency. We had to navigate through the crisis while upholding the values and principles upon which our Union was founded. Despite what was happening in Europe, we had also our own problems here in the House to solve. I am proud to say that our leadership rose to the occasion, taking decisive steps to maintain trust in the European decision-making process. We strengthened the transparency, ethics and rightful conduct within our institutions. They became paramount and I commend on our efforts in this regard. As the rapporteur of the discharge report of the European Parliament, my primary goal was to provide a factual assessment of the financial implementation of the European Parliament budget for the year 2022. I aim to scrutinise how external events – such as the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis – affect our budgetary execution and how our institution responded to these challenges. Throughout this process, I have the privilege of working closely with Parliament’s administration. Their invaluable assistance has been instrumental in enabling us to fulfil our mandate effectively. Here I have to say that the structure of the report is a bit innovative, compared to the few last reports that we have on that issue before. We had a DG-by-DG approach, having in mind that each DG has specific issues, a specific approach to different challenges, so we keep it objective. Therefore, we need to express our gratitude and support for the tireless efforts of the administration. While we must continuously strive for positive reforms and improvements, we must also acknowledge and appreciate the dedication of those who serve in our institution. As a Bulgarian but also a dedicated European, I am deeply committed to promote transparency and fostering a modern democracy that truly represents the diverse views of all EU citizens. It is my firm belief that the European Parliament stands as a beacon of democratic values and principles, and it is our collective responsibility to uphold and strengthen these foundations. I am pleased to say that those values have been defended throughout the pages of my report, and I am certain that we would have a valuable final result tomorrow during the vote.

Madam President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, somehow I’m attracted to history by reading a lot about the Roman Empire, and I know that before they establish a village or a city, first they build a road, and I think they have very good reasons to do so. This helps me understand why, when we build an airport or a highway to a given place in Europe, we are not just absorbing EU funds, we are not just using EU programmes: we are keeping a whole region alive. If you visit an average small or medium city somewhere in Europe and ask the average citizen there what Europe can do for you, I bet my hat that most of them will reply, ‘Help me bring more EU funds to my place. We would like to attract more tourists. We need research and development facilities or centres. We would like to see a new factory improved here with EU funds. We would like to have safer and cleaner modes of transport thanks to EU funds.’ Nobody will ask about any other dimension of the Union, and yes, of course, our Union is probably the greatest achievement of humankind because of this almost a century of peace. But it was created because of the steel and coal, because of free trade, because of free movement. This is only possible if we build the right infrastructure with EU funds, and this is happening with empowering and enlarging cohesion policy, not cutting here and there. I am grateful for all those who participate in this debate. I’m happy to see so many people here, so many people who would like to have a catch-the-eye and participate in the debate. It means that this policy is still alive. It means that there is demand for this policy not only in the east, but in the west as well. We can see that the next step for the cohesion policy is to enlarge by including every region in Germany, in France, in Italy – everyone should be eligible to get support from that policy. I think this is the future of cohesion policy. It is going forward and not backward, and I think this is the only way to advertise what is the reason to exist of this Union.

. – Madam President, I hope that the Commissioner will be with us soon. Tomorrow we are voting on 30 pages, 30 pages, summarising a whole mandate of the Committee on Regional Development. A report that took a long time because it was a mandate that was everything, but not ordinary. He was everything, but not easy. And no, in these 30 pages it does not say that cohesion policy is wonderful and incredible, and that it is infallible. It says, however, that at the time of Covid, when the European Union had to save lives, this policy was the only one that took up this task. On the contrary, our report contains 85 recommendations on how to make cohesion policy more understandable, more humane, easier, more accessible and reach more and more people in the European Union, at every end, in every village, in every municipality. For months, I have devoted myself to travelling across Europe with a delegation, with my EPP colleagues, visiting emblematic projects funded by the European Union. From telescopes, the world's largest, to hospitals and exponents, to investments in small and medium-sized businesses. It turned out that the European Union did not come up with anything better than cohesion policy to invest in its development. No crisis has succeeded in ruining cohesion policy, namely it offered a solution for each of them. Cohesion policy was the most common suspect in financing what you can think of - from ammunition, masks, respiratory devices, to measures to extinguish inflation. I mean, cohesion policy doesn't spend, it invests. Every euro that comes out of the European budget and is invested in a region returns partly to where it came from and supports everyone in the chain, from net payers to net beneficiaries. Which means they don't exist, there are only net winners. I will give you an example and it is with the gas connection between Bulgaria and Greece, the interconnector that was launched by a pro-European government in 2019, which ensures energy independence on half of the continent, on a whole part of the region. That's something we couldn't do on our own. We are doing this thanks to the European budget. Such stories should be told during the upcoming campaign, because cohesion policy is the showcase of the European Union with everything we have achieved. Colleagues, it is not time to debate whether there is a cohesion policy, but how to make it stronger, simpler and more accessible. I would like to thank all the political groups for their support and for the fact that tomorrow, I believe, I will receive their support not just to appreciate the past programming period and everything that has been achieved, but to send a strong signal to the European Commission and the Member States. Cohesion policy will exist as long as the EU exists, we will not give it up. It exists to make every European's life better.

Mr President, I think that we can finally vote in favour of environmental related legislation with a clear conscience, because finally this report is balanced and taking into consideration the position of the industry and those who are employed there. Millions of jobs are affected by this legislation. So I believe, thanks to the EPP shadow rapporteur, this report was balanced and takes into consideration what is possible and what is not. This Parliament voted in favour of banning petrol and diesel engines in 2035. And a few years before that, we have a proposal to create even higher requirements for these engines, while we can use this technology for a few years and we cannot get enough profit to cover the research and innovation necessary for this technology to be invented. So I think a good balance was reached, and I call colleagues to support it because we cannot be clean and ask the people to be poor because of that.

Mr President, I have the right to say that I took the floor because I do not want to hear any more about how we should spend the money from the European budget, modern and green. The truth is that in this session we are discussing many important things - from car catalysts to artificial intelligence. The agenda in Bulgaria, however, is different, because in recent days, incidents of refugees have increased, and with it, fear and discontent have increased, and this is the last thing we need. What we need is more money to protect borders, more people at borders, more equipment to protect ourselves. I am proud that yesterday the leader of the largest party in Bulgaria, Mr. Borisov, tabled a bill that strengthens not just the Bulgarian border, but the eastern border of the European Union. Because the stronger we are in the East, the calmer you will be in the West. I call on us to increase Frontex's budget, to have more equipment, more staff to go to the most neuralgic points at our borders, where the pressure has been unseen for decades.

Mr President, some of us are living in the dream that we are in a candy shop and the war is far away and we are not part of it and we just support it with speeches. Yesterday in Bulgaria, two Russian spies were caught doing their duties as belonging to the Russian Federation military forces. Those people, yes, probably did not shoot anyone, but they did not work in favour of European Union, respecting our rules and our way of life. So the soldiers are already here. Yes, maybe a different type of soldiers, but they are here. The death of Alexei Navalny is yet another example that Stalinism is back in Russia and we should be prepared that nothing good we can expect from Russia and we should be prepared, sparing enough funds to prepare our military forces to react if the worst is coming to us.

Madam President, in 2023, Eurobarometer carried out a survey: 8 out of 10 Europeans want more money for defence. 8 out of 10 want common procurement of defence equipment. 8 out of 10 want coordinated action to defend ourselves. You probably did not miss to notice that this is 2023, and in 2024 the world has not become calmer. I think the signal is clear. Everyone in Europe wants a united effort to keep us together. How can we do that, apart from making more money? First, the construction of infrastructure that allows the free movement of defense equipment. You can't imagine defending ourselves while our defense equipment waits in traffic jams, can you? This thing can't go on. We have awnings to build, a transport network to allow people and goods to move freely in calm weather, but also defence equipment when we need to defend ourselves. Mandatory, fast procedure for the construction of such sites. Let people see that Europe is behind them in these difficult times.

Madam President, Prime Minister, Commissioner, dear friends, I am making an effort to start with something positive, so I would like to thank Prime Minister Denkov for his efforts and for the guaranteed and declared pro-European, pro-Atlantic orientation of Bulgaria, which was a must and very important thing. Unfortunately, the positive things are coming to an end, because Bulgaria needs to return to the stability and predictability it had years ago. By the way, it was also visible when Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was here in the hall. Unfortunately, Bulgaria was among the countries that were pillars in the European Union and the institutions saw stability and predictability, they saw fewer balloons and kites. Today this is not a fact. Unfortunately, we live under the threat of impending resignations, scandals, which affects all of us and the image of Bulgaria. Investors came and stayed, and today this is not the case. I may surprise you, but contrary to the reality in Bulgaria, besides the question of who, it is very important to ask how much. For example, how much European funds have been disbursed? I'll give you two, 2%. How much has been disbursed from the Recovery and Resilience Plan? Three, three percent. How many countries have such indicators as Bulgaria? It's zero. None of them. We can continue with the series of questions. What will be the difference between the agreed money for 2024 and the money that will reach the municipalities? Most likely. I think that our country should once again take care of investments in municipalities and regions. European money was visible and tangible in every municipality, and this is no longer the case. And this tragedy must stop as we must stop the transfer from the old programming period of funds for purposes other than those foreseen. This money was for roads, railways and bridges and nothing else. Therefore, on the basis of Articles 22 and 29, I call on the European Commission to use special measures and guarantees that Bulgaria will not lose European funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan by applying a timetable for their compliance. The non-implementation of European instruments deprives people of reforms and investments Here we appreciate not the declarations, but the actions and the results achieved.

I have a logical task for you. At the end of last year, the European Commission presented a package called Euro 7 - The new environmental norms for cars. It requires billions of investments in gasoline and diesel cars to make them cleaner. Three months later, at the beginning of this year, this Parliament approved a total ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars. The task asks: Why did we do that? Do we know what we are doing or destroying an industry that gives 13 million jobs? 13 million – this is more than the population of Belgium. Three quarters of everything, everything in your houses is delivered by vans or trucks with gasoline or diesel engines. Three quarters. Apart from Covid, apart from the war in Ukraine, apart from inflation, apart from high fuel prices, what else do we want to bring down on the heads of this industry? No wonder we are so catastrophically behind the United States of America. Fifteen years ago, our economy was one trillion dollars larger than that of the United States of America. Today, the U.S. is $5 trillion bigger than ours. Do you know in the top 20 largest companies in Europe, in the world forgive, how many are European? Two, just two. That's because we don't need more regulation. We need a free market and reindustrialization. And if we may not introduce Euro 8, Euro 9 and Euro 10 by the end of this term.

Madam Present, Madam Vice-President, dear colleagues, I am glad that we have that debate here. It was very rich and thoughtful, I would say. As I mentioned at the very beginning, you are on some bridge between Denmark and Sweden or the Arlberg Tunnel in Austria. Not just because there are good achievements from engineering point of view, but because they are capturing the mind of the people and make them feel proud of their engineers, their country and, of course, the Union which their country belongs to. And I think we should achieve something like this for the next generations to make them feel proud and not to find any excuse for delaying them. For instance, the Karawanks Tunnel is a tunnel under the Alps between Slovenia and Austria and has been built in four years, and it’s long: eight kilometres. In order to build eight kilometres of tunnel today I think we would need way more than four years, probably eight. Machines get better, engineers get better, technologies get better and the time gets longer. It’s because of us — let’s face it — and because of our procedures. And I’m happy that we have the support of our colleagues coming from Greece. But we have to think about procedures there as well, because I believe some of the delays are caused by these procedures, who knows? What I know for sure is that we have to stop this. And I think that we should have both things simultaneously: protecting the environment and having big infrastructure projects done. Because they are serving not only our societies in peace, but they are going to protect our Union in times which are way more difficult, in times of conflict, which unfortunately happens quite close to our Union.

Mr President, major infrastructure projects are something that Europe likes to be proud of. We are proud of the Öresund bridge, between Sweden and Denmark, we are proud of the Alberg tunnel in Austria, we are proud of many other major infrastructure projects, such as the Rhine-Danube corridors. And rightly so, they are not only changing the geography of a continent and the lives of people, but they are also completely changing the face of Europe. Unfortunately, however, nowadays the pace at which we build such emblematic projects has slowed down tremendously. If we can trust the European Court of Auditors, and I trust it a lot, according to its report, the average delay for such large infrastructure projects in Europe is between 11 and 15 years. I travel a lot. And in my Bulgaria, and all over Europe, and I have to tell you that there are people who do not believe that they will live to see a new tunnel dug under the Alps, or a high-speed railway, or a new highway, because of the new heavy administrative requirements that Europe often imposes. On top of that, there is a new circumstance. Programming periods are changed, operational programmes are changed, new priority axes, new governments, new ministers and new mayors, new ideas, new priorities come. Finally, people suffer because big projects are not finished and are extremely delayed. And that has to stop, because for the 11 or 15 years that we're slowing down to finish something, China is probably building a lot more than what we're doing at times. I know the environment is different, I know the requirements are different. However, Europe must be competitive and not allow itself to fall further behind because of political or administrative obstacles. Where's the solution? First, Europe must have a clear definition of what a large infrastructure project is. The definitions will be given by all of us here, we will define what a big infrastructure project is, and then we will make sure that there is an accelerated procedure, special monitoring by the European Commission and a fast track for these projects. This is intended to make the European Commission even more involved in the process of building these projects and to ensure that the replacement of one government by another does not prevent the completion of this project and its construction. An important project that has already begun should not be stopped just because one minister has changed with another. I believe that this thing is the key to faster construction in Europe, especially of those projects that completely change its appearance. We must not allow what happened to the recovery and resilience plans. They became a competition for operational programs and began to interfere with each other. Thus, in some countries, either the new programming period and operational programmes are lagging behind or the recovery and resilience plan is not being addressed. Something very important. We also have to change our way of thinking, Covid is behind us, lessons have been learned, but a war is taking place one step away from Europe. There is an instrument that we do not take advantage of enough, and it is that of military mobility. We need to invest more in that infrastructure, which in peacetime can be used by more and more people, by business, by tourists, but if God forbid it has to be used in another direction. I believe that the completion of the TEN-T network is of utmost importance and that is why, in our quest to complete it, we must bear in mind the Eastern Partnership and Ukraine as our allies and countries with which we will work in an ever closer relationship. Finally, there is a project that I follow very closely for a high-speed railway between Sofia and Burgas, especially in the section between Elin Pelin and Kostenets. Half a billion levs change the appearance of an entire region, of an entire country and for the first time in 100 years something like this is being built. It also changes people's thinking. They are starting to believe in Europe because Europe has believed in them and helped them with such an investment.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, Members of the Court of Auditors, dear colleagues, I know it feels like a very long time ago, but 2021 was not that far in our calendar. I’m sure that you all remember how tough it was, and probably it is quite easy from the distance at the time to judge what is wrong and what is right. But the truth is that all European institutions, including the European Parliament, were facing a lot of challenges. I think all those who were taking decisions in that difficult period deserve our respect and our applauses. This is why I have a pledge towards you to keep the discharge focused solely on procedure and in mind proportionally with the situation of 2021. Of course, I understand why some political groups were tabling amendments for the events of December 2022 related to Qatargate. I stand strongly to all our efforts to recover the trust of the European Parliament and the European institutions and work for more transparency. I am proud that the EPP is supporting our President of fighting to recover the good image of the European Parliament. As a Bulgarian, but also as a European, I’m here to work for a more transparent parliament, leading a modern democracy to represent the views of all EU citizens, and I sincerely believe that this is what this Parliament is standing for. Finally, I think during that crisis, that tough period for all of us, the Parliament managed successfully to maintain the representation of people, and we did it good and served as a good example.

Madam President, dear colleagues, I know how do you feel when someone is taking the floor in the middle of the votes. This is why I prepared a very short 45—minute speech. When I started working on urban mobility, I was thinking that it is all about trains, trams, buses, cars, bikes and, yes, about e—scooters. It turns out to be all about rights. The right of every person with disability in Europe to use urban mobility networks. Every mother with a baby carriage to use a good infrastructure prepared for her. It is all about those kids who are willing to ride a bike on a safe bike lane far from cars, trucks and buses. So if I have to say, yes, it is all about those who are willing to drive car as well. We should not treat them as criminals. Let us not forget that those who are living in other most rural areas have no alternative. They have to move somehow and the car is their only solution. If I have to wrap up, there is a reason that the word ‘balance’ has a divine region. It is exactly in the middle between material and spiritual. In our days this means: yes, let’s adopt and encourage people to use new technologies, new modes of transport, but not turn our backs to modes of transport who serve us faithfully for decades.

Mr President, Mr Commissioner, dear colleagues, I can describe the guidelines for the budget 2024 with one sentence: it is a matchmaking process where the priorities meet the money. And I think this is good. The recent years, though – years of war and crisis – request a lot from us. They demand investments in protection and security. I give you two examples. Security means commitment. So security at our external borders requires immediate acceptance of Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen Area – an immediate one, both countries are deserving this. And it requires from us increased financial support to the border management mechanism and visa. So I call on my colleagues to support this paragraph in the guidelines. We depend on that security and we cannot leave those Member States who are on the front line to fight for us alone. Protection means action, so our EU farmers are suffering from the war as well, because of the import from third countries of grain. Of course we support those who suffer. We show this every day, but we cannot leave behind the farmers. So I call on the European Commission to support the European farmers who suffer from the war as everybody else. Turning a blind eye to the problem is not only destroying EU farming, but also encourages Euroscepticism. I think the EU budget is the image-maker of our Union and now we can prove that it can serve for better.

Mr President, I find it difficult to vote in favour and to support this regulation at second reading. This is due to the fact that, according to my own understanding, everyone is responsible in the first place for himself. Having taken care of yourself, one of the highest goals is to start taking care of family, loved ones, the environment, your state, as one of the highest goals you can have. It's hard to imagine how a man who can hardly pay his bills, who wonders how to support his children and dress them, who can hardly charge his car at these expensive fuel prices, can start thinking about nature and the planet and saving it. I am not saying that I deny or do not believe that the future is of green technologies, of those who get less dirty, of renewable energy. I think that the art of governing – whether it is a city, a country or something more like the European Union – is to be able to feel the fabric of society, to hear people and, when you have set goals, to adapt them to what people are going through. We have rightly set ourselves high targets with the Emissions Trading System. Before there was Covid, before there was war, before there was 25% inflation, before there were high fuel prices, before there were high prices in stores. That's why I believe that yes, we should achieve these goals, but at a pace that people can tolerate. Because if you think that those who can't take care of themselves, their family, will take care of the planet, I think we'll be wrong.

Mr President, dear Commissioner, colleagues, I have the easiest task today to represent the largest conservative group here, EPP, and to connect this with cycling strategy. Of course, there is nothing more conservative than taking care about your health and find the easiest, the cheapest and the smartest way to commute in the city. Of course, cycling has enormous benefits, not only those I just said, but protecting the environment, less pollution, less congestion on the road. Saying that, there is nothing more conservative than taking care of an industry which represents one million jobs and has the potential to increase by two million jobs in the next 10 years. Moreover, it’s represented by 1 000 small and medium enterprises. Remind me if I’m forgetting something, but Europe is not leading in the world when it comes to many different industries. Here we have a chance to change that, to invest in infrastructure which will allow our producers to produce better models, new quality bikes, and to have a bigger market in Europe. I think the next phase of the ‘Made in Europe’ initiative could be focused on bikes as well. There is plenty of European manufacturers who can compete with their colleagues in China, the US or other states. However, we have a lot of issues to solve. Infrastructure is not developed the way it should be. And we all know the risk that coexisting of cyclists and cars in the same place hides. So, we should encourage not only the Member States, but the local authorities to invest specifically in cycling infrastructure which is going to allow safe place for all those who would like to ride bikes and without any interference with the traffic on the road. I think that the intelligent transport systems shall seek to improve the recognition of cyclists on the road. Education campaigns should be launched, starting from the Commission. Guidelines of how the cyclists could coexist with the rest of the traffic on the streets. And mainly encourage all local authorities, using EU funds provided by the Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund, to invest in infrastructure which will allow all those who would like to ride bikes to do it in Europe with European bikes.

Madam President, organised crime has long been not what we remember from the mid-1990s, or what we know from street gangster films. Today, organised crime often has its protagonists well-educated and good-looking people, with the right diplomas from the right universities offering innovative financial products. However, a shiny office, a nice website and smiling young faces are just the packaging, and inside sometimes hide financial fraud, money laundering, financing political parties or avoiding sanctions against the Russian Federation. In recent days, an international large-scale investigation between the United States of America, Britain and Bulgaria has been announced, in which the financial, alleged Nexo financial pyramid has stung tens of thousands of people with tens of billions of euros. You're probably wondering why we're interested in this? This financial pyramid financed the Yes, Bulgaria party, which until recently participated in the government of Bulgaria. I think that the European institutions cannot act selectively. They need to check this case and show that there's no double yard, that it's acting the same way. To show the European voter that his interest is above all else. The transparency of European funding and of their financial interest is above all else.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, I believe that Ms Marques and Mr Olbrycht deserve a congratulation for their work well done. I believe that the MFF desperately needed an update. It looks like an old black and white TV screen that we tried to connect to YouTube; it’s not going to happen. I’ll give you only one example. In the previous MFF, there are about 30 billion for transport infrastructure. With the current numbers and the current prices of raw materials, the project that has been planned will never be implemented. So we need an MFF that can cover the requirements of the high inflation, the war, the high prices of raw materials, the new prices of fuel, in order to get the job done and conclude those projects. I believe this is the right direction and we have a last chance now to cover the expectations of the people who are outside this building, just before the European elections.

Mr President, I was a trainee at the European Parliament before I became a Member of the European Parliament, and as such, the first thing I learned is that here anyone can become anything, because people are treated equally, no matter where they come from. This is the first time I have hesitated in this, mainly because of the behaviour of the Dutch government. The very fact that there is a debate on whether Bulgaria and Romania should join Schengen is insulting. Bulgaria and Romania not only have the right to enter Schengen, but the European Union has the obligation to admit Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen. Imagine if tomorrow both countries stopped fulfilling their obligations as members, as the Netherlands currently does. If, say, they stop paying their membership fees to the European budget, there will be 1,705 people protesting in this room for 705 people. And I want to tell you that those who are currently feeding the monster of European skepticism will be the first to chase it. Bulgaria and Romania will teach a lesson to those who created the European Union, because this will not deny us our way to Europe and will not break us. You will see in the next elections that pro-European parties will win despite unfair treatment.

Mr President, dear colleagues, I voted in favour of CARE, FAST-CARE, CRII and CRII+, and I will vote in favour of REPower tomorrow: yet another initiative of European Commission which is going to address yet another crisis that is facing European Union. And nobody is against the willingness of the European Union to overcome the dependence on Russian gas and oil. That’s sure. Nobody was against of the willingness of the European Union to overcome the consequences of COVID. Nobody was against to overcome the consequences of the flood, the war in Ukraine or the migrant crisis. But at some point we have to put everything on end because the European regional development policy and agriculture policy could not fund any new initiative that the European Commission will start. We know it’s important, but we’re not going that way because after all, we are going to end two major policies of the Union which are so important for every European citizen.

Mr President, Commissioner, I don’t remember the last time when we adopted the budgeting piece for an ordinary time. If somebody remembers, please let me know. But I do not. And it looks like this is the new normal. I welcome the efforts to spend the unused 40 billion to support families and small businesses across Europe with these difficult times. I think we have a very important role as Members of this Parliament, and the role is to tell the story to a bus driver in Germany, to a farmer in Spain or a grocery store owner in Bulgaria. What is the European budget doing for them? In order to tell the story, we need a key element of this proposal. How many families will be supported? With how much per family? Plus how many small businesses will be supported? For what? These are all questions that we seek answers to, and in order to be more efficient, we have to know. We often debate here about the lack of energy resources, a lack of gas, a lack of liquidity in our funds. But we don’t speak about the lack of trust in the Union. So in order to be more effective, we have to explain in a very simple manner to our voters what is this Union doing with this budget for every single citizen in times of war?

Madam President, Mr Vice-President and, in particular, Mr Minister, the ‘Iron Curtain’ was not just an expression. It was a dividing line between two worlds – one of barriers and barbed wire and another of free personal choice. It was such a strong dividing line that it made the Berlin Wall a symbol of the Cold War. Such a strong dividing line that the biggest victory in the Cold War was the demolition of the Berlin Wall. But a particularly valuable lesson was taught to us by people on both sides of the wall. You can dig tunnels, you can design balloons, you can swim in the cold icy waters, but the desire for a dignified life wins, the desire to travel peacefully wins. Thirty-three years later, we are faced with the same lesson, but we do not seem to have learned it. Schengen, a symbol of unity and the fall of borders, has become a new iron curtain and an occasion for some countries to point fingers at others. Why, so many years after Bulgaria and Romania have fulfilled all the requirements, are they not allowed into Schengen? Why do we make the same mistake again? Bulgaria has been part of Europe for a thousand and three hundred years. Both Bulgarians and Romanians are Europeans just as much as everyone else and deserve a dignified and fair treatment, not waiting for barriers and counters. Thirty-three years later, Europe is faced with the same choice. The question is, this time, on which side of the wall will European unity or national ratings stand? Remember, however, that politics no longer exists to build walls, but to tear them down.

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, talking about regional policy, what comes to my mind are the lessons from the history that we have, because Europe has a very strong history of border regions and borders. I’m happy that most of the internal borders of the Union were turned into bridges, railways and roads that connect businesses, tourists and people in general. This is great. But still, there are some lessons to be learned. There are still internal borders between EU Member States, which are keeping trucks waiting there for days, spending money, polluting the air and losing profit for their companies. There is an eastern solution for that. Countries like Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria should be included in the Schengen Area while they have been covering all the requirements for years until now. There is no explanation for that. Talking about borders and regions, let’s talk about external border regions of the European Union. We are suffering from high pressure on the external borders, especially in the country I know best, Bulgaria, and recently we have had a big wave of illegal migration. We need the adoption and update of the Multiannual Financial Framework in order to secure our borders – better-equipped personnel, better technical equipment on the borders to protect our families, our citizens and our cities. Those people deserve a good night’s sleep and somebody who is taking care of them who is well-paid and well-motivated. In the very end, I would like to pay tribute to both Bulgarian policemen who lost their lives chasing an illegal migrant bus crossing my country. I’m sure this Parliament will learn the lessons from history and will not let this happen again.

Mr President, what I will not do with this speech are two things. The first is to spit on my country, and the second is to take on the role of victim. What I want to do is solve a European problem here in Europe. The European problem is that some self-forgotten people, accidentally caught up in politics, decided to deal with the opposition by putting it in jail. However, this made the opposition stronger, and they from the government made them defendants. What has happened is that we have proven that the system in Bulgaria works. The fact that these people are no longer rulers, and the court has ruled twice that they are guilty, shows that Bulgaria is a rule of law and I am proud of it. These people are the exception, and I'm sure people will never allow such people to rule us again. What you should be worried for sure, colleagues, is that this arrest came one day after the announcement was made by former Prime Minister and opposition leader Boyko Borissov that he supports Ukraine and condemns Russia and its aggression. He took your position and paid the price for it. Now I want to talk about double standards. Try to close your eyes and imagine an EPP prime minister in Greece or Croatia pumping the opposition from the Greens or the Socialists into prison. There would be hunger strikes and demands for resignations. Colleagues on the left, keep quiet today. If tomorrow happens in your countries, it will be too late to yell.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear friends, I remember when MFF was initially proposed by the European Commission we all said that never before in the history of European Union our regions did not receive more investment than the current proposal. And then the COVID came and we all embraced Next Generation EU. And I think Next Generation EU and RRF are the correct medicine to cure the situation that the Union was back then. But as every good medicine, it has side effects. So one of the side effects that it caused was that the Commission created an internal competition between RRF and operational programmes. In the result of that, RRF is running very well and is achieving good results, but operational programmes and partnership agreements are not approved and they don’t deliver. So what is the solution? In my point of view, first is that the European Commission should promise a no-cut policy to the existing policies that we have, such as cohesion policy. And then the European Parliament should have a say with a discharge on RRF.