OREANDA-NEWS. June 17, 2013. President Andris Berzins met with Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev to talk about the development of bilateral relations between the two countries under the framework of the European Union, as well as to exchange views about how to facilitate economic development and how to form co-operation outside of the EU.

The meeting took place during President Berzins’ visit to the Slovakian capital city of Bratislava, where a summit of Central European presidents is taking place.
 
The two presidents invited each other to visit their countries, thus noting that the relationship between Latvia and Bulgaria must be activated at all levels. President Berzins said that he welcomes the fact that trade between the two countries increased by 30% during the first quarter of this year in comparison to the same period last year, which shows fairly positive trends in relation to the economic relationship between the two countries.
 
President Plevneliev, for his part, said that both Latvia and Bulgaria are countries which are well aware of the meaning of transformation processes from one economic system to another, adding that membership in the EU has clearly been a factor which encourages positive development because Bulgaria is a pro-European country for which it is important to ensure further growth in the direction of the euro zone, as well as to ensure energy independence and a diversification of energy resource delivery routes. Mr Plevneliev also talked about Latvia’s achievements in overcoming the crisis and ensuring various reforms, congratulating Latvia about its movement toward the euro zone and the things which it has achieved. He added that Bulgaria still has homework to do in this regard.
 
President Berzins thanked Mr Plevneliev for his positive assessment of Latvia, adding that our country’s movement toward the euro zone is large dictated by economic needs which relate to business processes and expansion in sales markets – something which Latvia and the Baltic States cannot ensure by themselves in terms of successful development of entrepreneurship. The President added that analysis of the causes of many EU problems and evaluation of future developmental opportunities show that one of the key factors is the individual developmental potential of various countries. Both heads of state agreed that EU member states must be active individually, bilaterally and multilaterally when it comes to co-operation with other countries so as to find new sales markets and routes of development beyond the EU’s boundaries. They also said that an interconnection corridor between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea would be very important in terms of rail transport and other circulation of goods, thus making it possible to co-operation with other Eastern Partnership countries which are not EU member states.
 
“We must look for ways of finding long-term and sustainable development solutions so as to reach the average level of welfare in the European Union and keep our people form emigrating to other countries,” said President Berzins. “Achieving stability alone will not resolve this matter. This is a decisive period of time – one during which we must be open, exchange information, take practical steps, and strengthen the system which we have joined.”