Partnership, not pessimism
In a wide-ranging interview, US ambassador to Bulgaria Nancy McEldowney outlined the dynamics between Washington and Sofia on key foreign policy and domestic issues and, on the eve of Independence Day 2009, spoke of what it means to be an American in Bulgaria.
On foreign policy, a strong relationship has developed: "We co-ordinate on a bilateral basis our policy throughout the region," McEldowney says.
This includes the Western Balkans – the Balkan peninsula – which she confirms to be an area of attention and continuing concern, underscored by the visit in May 2009 by US vice president Joe Biden, a signal of the seriousness that the region enjoys in the priorities in president Barack Obama’s administration.
"We have found our partnership with Bulgaria in this regard to be extremely helpful and extremely productive for both of us. Bulgaria is a country that is in the Balkans and of the Balkans, but yet doesn’t suffer in the way that many of the countries do, from more existential problems."
There are many examples of co-operation between the two countries, as Nato allies in Bosnia and Kosovo, among them. Significantly, however, there is a shared commitment to the longer-term process of facilitating the integration of Balkans countries into institutions that would help long-term stability, institutions such as Nato, the EU, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe.
This is tied to what McEldowney describes as a process of political dialogue and the sharing of a strategic vision that allows politicians and ordinary people to get from their current difficulties to a future that addresses their problems in important ways.
Of the foreign policy relationship, she says: "We look at Bulgaria as a country that is responsible, that is dependable, that has genuinely partnered with us".
Washington looks to Bulgaria to be a force for stability and responsibility throughout the region.
"As friends and partners, as treaty allies and people who talk on a daily basis about the things that matter to us, to both of our sides, we do have a busy agenda of things that we’re working on," McEldowney says.
"It relates to everything, from Somali pirates, to stability of the Black Sea region, to how we as an alliance in the Euro Atlantic community are going to deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, how we are going to create stability throughout south Asia, to what’s happening across the European continent, and that’s everything from the energy issues that we talked about previously, Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union, and creating stability and fostering democracy there, to dealing with the problems of continued transition in Central and Eastern Europe and the problems of the economic crisis on the globe overall. That is a kind of a summary, if you asked me my day, my week, that’s it."
A key question in the bilateral relationship is energy, and McEldowney says that this question is approached in the context that Washington sees energy security and diversity as an issue relevant to the whole continent.
Since the January 2009 cutoff of natural gas supplies, which she describes as "a real wake-up call", the US and Bulgaria have been in dialogue on the need to address domestic usage, storage and access, along with technical issues that as a totality with these factors could open the way to a solution.
"We have also been very supportive of Bulgaria’s efforts to transform certain aspects of how energy is dealt with here. One is the Bulgarian Government’s desire to do away with the ‘intermediary companies’ that are registered offshore, often impenetrable, difficult to deal with. We believe that if Lukoil, Gazprom, any other company is going to do business here, they should do it in a straightforward and forthright manner that has both clarity and accountability associated with it.
"And then, of course, we have talked about the need for diversity, not just of routes but also of supply, because Bulgaria is in a situation now where it receives 70 per cent of its total energy supplies and more than 90 per cent of its natural gas supplies from a single monopoly supplier. You don’t have to be a genius or a rocket scientist to understand that creates vulnerabilities. People often ask me, am I pro-Nabucco and anti-South Stream, and the answer that I give publicly and privately is that I am pro Bulgarian interests and what Bulgaria needs to do is figure out where is the most reliable, the most transparent, the most commercially viable course and to combine those three factors in evaluating different projects. But one thing I would mention here before going to renewables: we have worked together with the Bulgarian Government especially on the area of transparency."
Transparency
McEldowney says that it is hoped that soon an initiative on transparency in energy transit will be launched.
"We have worked with an organisation called EITI, which is Extracted Industries Transparency Initiative. It is set up and run by the same individual who founded Transparency International, Dr Peter Eigen, who travelled here to Sofia to talk with us about this initiative and actually attended the Energy Forum that was hosted by President Purvanov, and talked about what we might be able to do in energy transit. We would like to see Bulgaria position itself as a leader in the region by stepping forward and saying, ‘we have taken the steps necessary to create greater transparency in this key part of the energy equation, the transit of energy,’ to publish agreements, to publish revenue streams, and to invite civil society into a dialogue about this."
The embassy and AmCham hosted a conference in Sofia on alternative, efficient and clean energy.
"In addition to having no energy resources of its own, so it must import almost all of them, it wastes more of what it does import than any other country in the EU. That’s got to change. Not simply because there are these EU criteria that have to be met, and it will be a very hard slog for Bulgaria to meet these, because they are pretty dramatic numbers, but also look at the environmental impact of wasting, and the financial impact. It’s significant. We are looking hard at that, and the advocacy point that I have made specifically on alternative and renewable energies and energy efficiency relates to the economic crisis underway now. One of my favourite sayings is, ‘a crisis is a terrible thing to waste’ – it’s a principle that president Obama that proceeded on with our stimulus package, to say, we’re not going to just deal with the economic crisis, we’re also going to solve some long-standing problems in the context of this crisis."
Another key area of bilateral co-operation is work against organised crime, specifically at a regional level against trafficking in people, illegal drugs and weapons. McEldowney says that there has been progress but the problems are not yet solved, not until the illegal networks in the country and the region are broken up.
When it is put to her that she is the latest in a line of US ambassadors to speak out on Bulgaria’s shortcomings in dealing with organised crime and corruption, and asked whether she is impatient, McEldowney says: "Yes. The word that I’ll use, more than frustrated is ... I am impatient".
"I believe that anybody who really cares about this country is impatient for more progress on corruption and on organised crime. How can you not be? How can you care about Bulgaria and not advocate for faster and more effective action on this issue? And of course there is no, what we say, silver bullet. You cannot solve these problems overnight. I recognise that."
McEldowney says that the government that will take office after the July 5 national parliamentary elections "has both an opportunity but also a very serious responsibility to move forward on corruption and on organised crime in substantial and concrete ways".
"I hope that the government will come forward both with a strategic plan for what it will do, with specific milestones, and by milestones, I mean goals and timelines within which they plan to meet those goals and will make those public so that both the government and the people and civil society can have a dialogue about it."
She says that a fine place to begin would be EU funds, with oversight and monitoring mechanisms, along with the new government making a priority of resolving outstanding cases of people alleged to have mismanaged or embezzled EU money.
"If the government is successful in doing those two things, it would then provide a lovely template on which to broaden procedures for public procurement more generally and given the significant role that public procurement plays in this economy both in terms of revenue stream and job creation in terms of the development of small and medium enterprises, greater rigour and greater transparency in the oversight and operation of public procurement tenders would have a very positive impact here."
When it is put to her that reforming rules on political party financing – an issue on which she has spoken out – could be included, McEldowney says that the issue is absolutely crucial but will take time and would have to be done in phases.
"Unless and until there is true, and I mean genuine, transparency, genuine rigour in discerning the sources and the flow of money that goes into and out of political parties, there will never be a break between the parties and vested interests, and shady business."
Asked about the current attitudes of US business people in Bulgaria, she says that the American community finds Bulgaria "pretty attractive" with its low tax rates, well-educated workforce and good geographic location.
"So it is no accident that an American company, the energy firm AES, is the largest single foreign investor in Bulgaria, but it also explains why we are in the top 10 overall list of foreign investors. People are here because they want to be here and they see it in their interests to be here. That said, there are difficulties to doing business and the global economic crisis, in my judgment, makes it even more imperative that the Bulgarian authorities take steps to make this country the absolute most attractive place to do business that it possibly can."
For companies already here, Bulgaria’s authorities should take steps to resolve problems such as unnecessary bureaucratic delays and attempts at undue influence. More than that, the next government should consider how to make Bulgaria a "magnet" drawing people keen on innovation, notably in the IT field.
Welcoming country
Asked about the individual experience of being an American in Bulgaria, McEldowney says "it’s great".
"It is great because this is a country and these are people who are very open, and very welcoming of Americans, of American culture, and so it is a place that has a positive and warm approach to both official Americans and private Americans, but it is also great because it is a place that needs and wants American assistance, American advice, American co-operation and support. So when you look at what makes work meaningful, what makes life meaningful, is doing important things, making a positive contribution, helping make a place on this planet of ours better for the people who inhabit it, I know that, and I can share with you, it’s not just American embassy does a lot of things that are intended to be good, and there are some things that the US government has done here that I am very proud of, that have touched people’s lives in real ways. I would mention institutions like the American University in Bulgaria in Blagoevgrad, the American College of Sofia, as well as the Anglo-American School which is slightly different but I would still put it in that category; these are institutions that are the premier educational institutions in this country, that we set up to help Bulgaria and help Bulgarians, and really is touching their lives.
"We also have the Peace Corps, which does incredibly important things. But also, the Americans who are here, whether as diplomats or businessmen or NGOs, bring with them an American mindset and outlook that has touched the people in their personal lives, and whether it is Americans playing American football, or doing volunteer projects like cleaning up garbage in South Park – you know, the American Chamber of Commerce partnered with us, we did a Volunteer Day, got over 1000 people all across the country, doing all kinds of things, painting park benches, repairing senior citizens’ homes."
For herself, McEldowney – who will leave in the autumn to take up the post of principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs – says: " It’s been a fun and fascinating and rewarding year for me. I told you I was frustrated and impatient about corruption, and I’m impatient for all the right reasons, in wanting good progress, but I don’t leave pessimistic. I leave confident that the right things can and will happen here, but there is a great deal of hard work to be done".
On foreign policy, a strong relationship has developed: "We co-ordinate on a bilateral basis our policy throughout the region," McEldowney says.
This includes the Western Balkans – the Balkan peninsula – which she confirms to be an area of attention and continuing concern, underscored by the visit in May 2009 by US vice president Joe Biden, a signal of the seriousness that the region enjoys in the priorities in president Barack Obama’s administration.
"We have found our partnership with Bulgaria in this regard to be extremely helpful and extremely productive for both of us. Bulgaria is a country that is in the Balkans and of the Balkans, but yet doesn’t suffer in the way that many of the countries do, from more existential problems."
There are many examples of co-operation between the two countries, as Nato allies in Bosnia and Kosovo, among them. Significantly, however, there is a shared commitment to the longer-term process of facilitating the integration of Balkans countries into institutions that would help long-term stability, institutions such as Nato, the EU, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe.
This is tied to what McEldowney describes as a process of political dialogue and the sharing of a strategic vision that allows politicians and ordinary people to get from their current difficulties to a future that addresses their problems in important ways.
Of the foreign policy relationship, she says: "We look at Bulgaria as a country that is responsible, that is dependable, that has genuinely partnered with us".
Washington looks to Bulgaria to be a force for stability and responsibility throughout the region.
"As friends and partners, as treaty allies and people who talk on a daily basis about the things that matter to us, to both of our sides, we do have a busy agenda of things that we’re working on," McEldowney says.
"It relates to everything, from Somali pirates, to stability of the Black Sea region, to how we as an alliance in the Euro Atlantic community are going to deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, how we are going to create stability throughout south Asia, to what’s happening across the European continent, and that’s everything from the energy issues that we talked about previously, Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union, and creating stability and fostering democracy there, to dealing with the problems of continued transition in Central and Eastern Europe and the problems of the economic crisis on the globe overall. That is a kind of a summary, if you asked me my day, my week, that’s it."
A key question in the bilateral relationship is energy, and McEldowney says that this question is approached in the context that Washington sees energy security and diversity as an issue relevant to the whole continent.
Since the January 2009 cutoff of natural gas supplies, which she describes as "a real wake-up call", the US and Bulgaria have been in dialogue on the need to address domestic usage, storage and access, along with technical issues that as a totality with these factors could open the way to a solution.
"We have also been very supportive of Bulgaria’s efforts to transform certain aspects of how energy is dealt with here. One is the Bulgarian Government’s desire to do away with the ‘intermediary companies’ that are registered offshore, often impenetrable, difficult to deal with. We believe that if Lukoil, Gazprom, any other company is going to do business here, they should do it in a straightforward and forthright manner that has both clarity and accountability associated with it.
"And then, of course, we have talked about the need for diversity, not just of routes but also of supply, because Bulgaria is in a situation now where it receives 70 per cent of its total energy supplies and more than 90 per cent of its natural gas supplies from a single monopoly supplier. You don’t have to be a genius or a rocket scientist to understand that creates vulnerabilities. People often ask me, am I pro-Nabucco and anti-South Stream, and the answer that I give publicly and privately is that I am pro Bulgarian interests and what Bulgaria needs to do is figure out where is the most reliable, the most transparent, the most commercially viable course and to combine those three factors in evaluating different projects. But one thing I would mention here before going to renewables: we have worked together with the Bulgarian Government especially on the area of transparency."
Transparency
McEldowney says that it is hoped that soon an initiative on transparency in energy transit will be launched.
"We have worked with an organisation called EITI, which is Extracted Industries Transparency Initiative. It is set up and run by the same individual who founded Transparency International, Dr Peter Eigen, who travelled here to Sofia to talk with us about this initiative and actually attended the Energy Forum that was hosted by President Purvanov, and talked about what we might be able to do in energy transit. We would like to see Bulgaria position itself as a leader in the region by stepping forward and saying, ‘we have taken the steps necessary to create greater transparency in this key part of the energy equation, the transit of energy,’ to publish agreements, to publish revenue streams, and to invite civil society into a dialogue about this."
The embassy and AmCham hosted a conference in Sofia on alternative, efficient and clean energy.
"In addition to having no energy resources of its own, so it must import almost all of them, it wastes more of what it does import than any other country in the EU. That’s got to change. Not simply because there are these EU criteria that have to be met, and it will be a very hard slog for Bulgaria to meet these, because they are pretty dramatic numbers, but also look at the environmental impact of wasting, and the financial impact. It’s significant. We are looking hard at that, and the advocacy point that I have made specifically on alternative and renewable energies and energy efficiency relates to the economic crisis underway now. One of my favourite sayings is, ‘a crisis is a terrible thing to waste’ – it’s a principle that president Obama that proceeded on with our stimulus package, to say, we’re not going to just deal with the economic crisis, we’re also going to solve some long-standing problems in the context of this crisis."
Another key area of bilateral co-operation is work against organised crime, specifically at a regional level against trafficking in people, illegal drugs and weapons. McEldowney says that there has been progress but the problems are not yet solved, not until the illegal networks in the country and the region are broken up.
When it is put to her that she is the latest in a line of US ambassadors to speak out on Bulgaria’s shortcomings in dealing with organised crime and corruption, and asked whether she is impatient, McEldowney says: "Yes. The word that I’ll use, more than frustrated is ... I am impatient".
"I believe that anybody who really cares about this country is impatient for more progress on corruption and on organised crime. How can you not be? How can you care about Bulgaria and not advocate for faster and more effective action on this issue? And of course there is no, what we say, silver bullet. You cannot solve these problems overnight. I recognise that."
McEldowney says that the government that will take office after the July 5 national parliamentary elections "has both an opportunity but also a very serious responsibility to move forward on corruption and on organised crime in substantial and concrete ways".
"I hope that the government will come forward both with a strategic plan for what it will do, with specific milestones, and by milestones, I mean goals and timelines within which they plan to meet those goals and will make those public so that both the government and the people and civil society can have a dialogue about it."
She says that a fine place to begin would be EU funds, with oversight and monitoring mechanisms, along with the new government making a priority of resolving outstanding cases of people alleged to have mismanaged or embezzled EU money.
"If the government is successful in doing those two things, it would then provide a lovely template on which to broaden procedures for public procurement more generally and given the significant role that public procurement plays in this economy both in terms of revenue stream and job creation in terms of the development of small and medium enterprises, greater rigour and greater transparency in the oversight and operation of public procurement tenders would have a very positive impact here."
When it is put to her that reforming rules on political party financing – an issue on which she has spoken out – could be included, McEldowney says that the issue is absolutely crucial but will take time and would have to be done in phases.
"Unless and until there is true, and I mean genuine, transparency, genuine rigour in discerning the sources and the flow of money that goes into and out of political parties, there will never be a break between the parties and vested interests, and shady business."
Asked about the current attitudes of US business people in Bulgaria, she says that the American community finds Bulgaria "pretty attractive" with its low tax rates, well-educated workforce and good geographic location.
"So it is no accident that an American company, the energy firm AES, is the largest single foreign investor in Bulgaria, but it also explains why we are in the top 10 overall list of foreign investors. People are here because they want to be here and they see it in their interests to be here. That said, there are difficulties to doing business and the global economic crisis, in my judgment, makes it even more imperative that the Bulgarian authorities take steps to make this country the absolute most attractive place to do business that it possibly can."
For companies already here, Bulgaria’s authorities should take steps to resolve problems such as unnecessary bureaucratic delays and attempts at undue influence. More than that, the next government should consider how to make Bulgaria a "magnet" drawing people keen on innovation, notably in the IT field.
Welcoming country
Asked about the individual experience of being an American in Bulgaria, McEldowney says "it’s great".
"It is great because this is a country and these are people who are very open, and very welcoming of Americans, of American culture, and so it is a place that has a positive and warm approach to both official Americans and private Americans, but it is also great because it is a place that needs and wants American assistance, American advice, American co-operation and support. So when you look at what makes work meaningful, what makes life meaningful, is doing important things, making a positive contribution, helping make a place on this planet of ours better for the people who inhabit it, I know that, and I can share with you, it’s not just American embassy does a lot of things that are intended to be good, and there are some things that the US government has done here that I am very proud of, that have touched people’s lives in real ways. I would mention institutions like the American University in Bulgaria in Blagoevgrad, the American College of Sofia, as well as the Anglo-American School which is slightly different but I would still put it in that category; these are institutions that are the premier educational institutions in this country, that we set up to help Bulgaria and help Bulgarians, and really is touching their lives.
"We also have the Peace Corps, which does incredibly important things. But also, the Americans who are here, whether as diplomats or businessmen or NGOs, bring with them an American mindset and outlook that has touched the people in their personal lives, and whether it is Americans playing American football, or doing volunteer projects like cleaning up garbage in South Park – you know, the American Chamber of Commerce partnered with us, we did a Volunteer Day, got over 1000 people all across the country, doing all kinds of things, painting park benches, repairing senior citizens’ homes."
For herself, McEldowney – who will leave in the autumn to take up the post of principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs – says: " It’s been a fun and fascinating and rewarding year for me. I told you I was frustrated and impatient about corruption, and I’m impatient for all the right reasons, in wanting good progress, but I don’t leave pessimistic. I leave confident that the right things can and will happen here, but there is a great deal of hard work to be done".