Thank you very much, madam convener.
I am privileged to address honourable members of the committee today as we enter the final phase of the Bulgarian presidency of the important political, economic and civilisational project that we call the European Union. Assuming the presidency has been a historic opportunity for Bulgaria, which is a former communist bloc country.
My introductory statement will be brief so that we will have more opportunities for questions and answers that address more directly areas of interest or concern of members as representatives of the Scottish people.
Our first priority—although it is not necessarily the most pleasant one from Bulgaria’s viewpoint—is the on-going negotiation process for the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union. We are entering an important phase for the completion of the withdrawal agreement. It is hoped that progress will be made if not this month, by October, so that a withdrawal agreement that includes a full detailed description of the expected transition period plus a declaration of a political nature that lays down the framework for the future legally binding arrangements for the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union after the United Kingdom leaves—in the legal sense of that word—the European Union can be signed.
An important element of both the withdrawal agreement and the future agreement will be EU citizens’ rights on the territory of the United Kingdom and, reciprocally, UK nationals’ rights on the territories of EU members. The progress in that particular area has been very satisfactory. At this point in time, we do not see any major impediments to reaching a mutually satisfactory set of rights and obligations that will address the expectations of EU and UK citizens. The same holds true at this point in time in respect of the financial arrangements that are related to the United Kingdom’s obligations as it departs the European Union. Other aspects have yet to be clarified. If members have an interest in discussing them, I will be ready to engage in a dialogue on them in the context of the Brexit negotiations.
Our agenda is not confined to the issue of Brexit. Another important task of ours is the focusing of the initial debate on the multi-annual financial framework for the next six or seven-year period of the functioning of the European Union. We are satisfied with the start and our capacity to moderate that difficult debate. We hope that the budget will retain the centrality of cohesion policy, which is important for the catching-up potential of countries of eastern Europe in particular, but also that of other parts of the European Union so that the European Union is not only civilisationally cohesive but economically and socially cohesive. We aspire to achieve the same centrality in respect of preserving the European Union’s regional development programmes. Therefore, we are looking forward to the opportunity for the United Kingdom to continue to selectively participate in specific regional development programmes of its own choosing in co-ordination with the plans and opportunities that are presented by the European Union’s budget, even after the UK leaves the European Union.
The future of the common agricultural policy is no less important in our agenda. That is another area in which consensus is sometimes very hard to achieve, as member states have differing views on the common agricultural policy’s future and centrality.
A workable budget is needed for the digital agenda. We have to work very hard as we lay down the grounds for the digital single market, the protection of personal data, and the common efforts to fight cybersecurity challenges.
An important priority for Bulgaria’s presidency is the reaffirmation of the European perspective for the western Balkans, by which we mean the countries in south-eastern Europe that have not yet started or have just started their negotiations for acceding to membership of the European Union. We are rewarded by the fact that the United Kingdom continues to take a very active interest in the future Europeanisation of the western Balkans. On 17 May 2018, Bulgaria hosted an important European Union summit that was devoted to the western Balkans, and we are looking forward to a meeting at the highest level in London that will be hosted by Prime Minister Theresa May and which will continue to develop the momentum that there has been in focusing on and underpinning the perspective for the western Balkans with concrete projects in transport, digitalisation, energy, connectivity and institutional integration.
Last but not least, the management of migration policy is an important element of our prioritisation in the presidency. It is an open secret that that is a very difficult area. Member states have differing views on whether the European Union should be open to more managed migration into it or whether there should be further reductions in the flows of migrants into it, whether they are legal or illegal.
An important aspect of the problem is the voluntary or compulsory relocation of migrants in accordance with a possibly amended text of the Dublin convention. I am sad to say that progress on that is very limited—if there has been progress at all—but we still hope to push the agenda for progress on amending the existing acquis communautaire of the European Union so that the expectations of all the nationals of the member states and the international community as a whole are better met and we combine the principles of solidarity, our commitments to the international documents on refugees, and concerns that are related to the influx of a large number of migrants in something that reflects a balanced account of the individual interests of the member states.
I will stop there so that I can give honourable members of the committee the chance to make comments and ask questions.