Rossen Jeliazkov: All Bulgarian representatives in the European Institutions work responsibly on Mobility Package I

All Bulgarian representatives in the European Council, the European Parliament and the Permanent Representation work responsibly and uniquely on the Mobility Package I. Such a position was expressed by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Rossen Jeliazkov, on allegations that the negotiations on the Mobility Package I are not enough to protect the national interests. According to him, the Bulgarian representatives in the European institutions, regardless of their party affiliation, have proven that defending the national cause on this topic is more significant than party interests.

"I would like to recall the accusations of lack of protection of the national interest during the Presidency - we have worked together with the transport sector as we inherited texts from the Estonian Presidency and proposals from the European Commission that envisaged the return of the driver at home and the implementation of the Directive for posting after 3 days stay in a Member State. The Bulgarian Presidency has put 4 compromise texts on the negotiating table, all of which have been agreed with the industry," Rossen Jeliazkov said. He expressed his certainty that during the Bulgarian Presidency 24 meetings were held in search of compromise solutions, which is a record number, considering that there are usually about 10 sessions per theme under a single presidency.

Minister Rossen Jelyazkov said that thanks to the hard work of all those involved in the topic was laid the basis of more acceptable texts regulating the work of the drivers. He recalled that the Road Alliance countries were not willing to negotiate. In his words, one of the last meetings before the Council in June 2018 has come to a precedent, the representatives of these states being silent and not expressing a position on the subject. In this situation, any Presidency can not achieve a reasonable and balanced outcome, the Minister said, adding that it was very easy to speculate later on with such a situation. "There is not a fair deal with negotiators whose only goal is to delete a whole sector," Rossen Jeliazkov added.

The Minister also said that a lot of hard work has been done on the Mobility Package I for several years, saying that the group of the same-minded states that opposed the proposed changes was formed in January 2017 and Bulgaria has been part of it since the beginning. In the framework of the Competitiveness Council on 20 February 2017, before the publishing of the texts on the Package, we came out with a joint statement not to fragment the Single Market, which shows that we were putting the necessary pressure before the texts were officially presented. "The Battle for the Mobility Package I will be very tough and there can be no" tar "at times in which we have to be united at the most," said Rossen Jeliazkov. According to him, it is a typical Bulgarian feature, to point out someone guilty to become sympathetic to the audience. "This thesis that national interest is not protected is sneaking from time to time. Because it is so insubstantial, no one finds in it a purely political ground to bring it back," Jeliazkov said. In this regard, the Minister pointed out that the Mobility Package I was a legislative initiative of the European Commission and not of France. "This is not about bilateral talks, about Bulgaria - France or Bulgaria - another country. Only at the level of the European Council can it be insisted that it can be lobbied, but when it comes to voting, it is voted by the ministers of all countries, by the MPs in the European Parliament. There the positions are both party and national and divided according to the attribute that we are constantly talking about fragmenting the market - peripheral and central European, "said Minister Rossen Jeliazkov. He expressed his strong support for the Bulgarian carriers and their protests, pointing out that the battle will be held on different fronts, but the cause of all is one.