Bulgaria’s low Budget deficit justifies it being invited to join the euro zone as soon as possible, media reports in Sofia quoted UK prime minister Gordon Brown as having said during a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart Boiko Borissov.
 
Brown promised to lobby the special meeting of European Union heads of state and government scheduled for February 11 2010 to make the Nabucco pipeline project a priority for the EU as a whole, the reports said.
 
London would work for a more rapid solution to the issue of limitations on Bulgarians’ access to the UK labour market. Labour market restrictions currently are to remain in place until 2011.
 
Brown told Borissov of his positive opinion of Bulgaria’s contribution in Afghanistan, where the country has military personnel taking part in the Nato-led force, and throughout the EU, reports said.
 
In conclusion, the two heads of government agreed that football was the only thing that divided the UK and Bulgaria at this point, Borissov told journalists on February 8 at the end of his two-day visit to the UK.
 
According to a report by Bulgarian news agency BTA, Borissov, speaking after meeting senior Conservative Party member and shadow foreign secretary William Hague, said that regardless of the outcome of the parliamentary elections in the UK in three months, there would be absolute continuity in policy towards Bulgaria.
 
A similar message of continuity was underlined at a meeting between Borissov and his delegation with John Bercow, speaker of the UK house of commons.
 
Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov met UK home secretary Alan Johnson, and with William Hughes, head of the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Tsvetanov and Hughes voiced satisfaction with co-operation between the two countries in the fight against trans-border organised crime.
 
Borissov met representatives of the UK Investment Fund who, Bulgarian National Radio said, told him that they were interested in making electric cars in Bulgaria.
 
Borissov said that Corus Ventures International Fund had provided British investment for manufacting electric cars in the southern Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora. Media reports in Sofia quoted the sum of the investment as being 100 million leva.
 
Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov met UK foreign secretary David Miliband, briefing Miliband on the Bulgarian Government’s priorities of joining the euro zone and the Schengen visa zone.
 
Access of Bulgarian citizens to the UK labour market was also discussed by Mladenov and Miliband, as well as the Western Balkans – which, it was agreed, should remain on the priority list for the EU – and the question of energy security and diversification in Europe.