Once again, Bulgaria is about to throw extensive resources to the wind in a vain attempt to make a problem go away by treating its symptoms, rather than the underlying causes. As Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev embarks on the Government aircraft to jet over to Paris on July 4, two topics are mooted as the main reason for his trip and one gets the distinct impression that they are directly linked.
The first one is, of course, the European Commission’s (EC) forthcoming interim report on Bulgaria’s progress in fighting corruption and organised crime, due to be published on July 23. With the amount of European funding frozen over ongoing investigations into alleged malfeasances rising above 580 million euro at the end of June, it looks increasingly likely that Bulgaria will receive a negative assessment of its efforts from the EC. Although France, which took over the presidency of the EU, cannot outright dictate the tone of the EC report, its influence as one of the bloc’s three largest countries cannot be discounted.
So it is no surprise then that the second major issue on Stanishev’s agenda is the long-delayed deal for four military corvettes for the Bulgarian Navy – the throwing of resources mentioned earlier. French firm Armaris was declared the winning bidder in the tender Bulgaria called in 2005, there has been no progress made for more than two years and the tender has ground to a halt on technicalities. French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s attempt to resurrect the deal during his visit to Sofia in October 2007 yielded no result, but with Bulgaria in such dire straits right now, Armaris looks increasingly likely to get the one billion euro contract. Never mind Stanishev’s own words, after Sarkozy had left, that the project was not on the agenda and the Cabinet’s decision to buy two refurbished frigates and a minesweeper from Belgium. Or the fact that most defence analysts agree that the corvettes would be useless in the Black Sea. In his latest statement on the issue, less than a week before visiting Paris, Stanishev saw the deal as the way to solve the long-term future of Bulgaria’s Navy.
And that is not the only issue on which Bulgaria appears willing to make expensive concessions. After his recent meeting with the French ambassador in Sofia, Etienne de Poncins, Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said Bulgaria was in favour of maintaining the existing system of subsidies in the farming sector, including direct payments, implying that Sofia backed Paris in its opposition to drastic reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP), a notoriously sensitive issue in France. Never mind that Bulgaria would benefit from current proposals to reform the CAP. But, then again, Bulgaria has so far found it difficult to use what funds it is allocated, so the difference will probably hardly be missed, one would think.
The timing of these statements certainly makes Bulgaria look like it is trying to avoid a beating by giving its lunch money to one of the big kids in the playground for some measure of protection. It will not make the reasons why everyone is picking on Sofia go away, though.
