We have shown that we know how to build bridges with our neighbors and lend a hand. Today, the Government of Bulgaria and President Rumen Radev have a historic opportunity to lend a hand in building a bridge of trust and friendship. "We expect them to remove the disagreement with the Negotiating Framework, free from all bilateral burdens, so that we can hold the right intergovernmental conference and thus start the accession negotiation process," the Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs said today. Bojan Maricic at the panel discussion "Democracy in Europe - 30 years after the Maastricht Treaty: New questions for the European future and the dilemmas related to enlargement".

- We are friends with Bulgaria and we will build friendly relations. We are the first neighbors, allies in NATO, we will be together in the EU. Strategic long-term friendship must be built constantly. Bridges are easy to tear down, but they are difficult and long to build. "We are ready to build bridges of lasting friendship, but we need to have mutual respect and a basis for protecting our interests," Maricic said.

He assessed that the dilemma about the future of Europe became an issue in the public discourse due to the stagnation in the enlargement policy of the Union with the beginning of the war in Ukraine, which unfortunately, in the most tragic way showed that the issue of enlargement is also a security issue for the region. , as well as for the Union itself and is no longer just a question of EU credibility.

- We have long since overcome this strategic crossroads and not only have we made the right decisions and constantly proved that we are an honest and trustworthy partner of the Union, but we are also firmly moving towards the realization of the goals. That is why we expect the member states of the Union to adjust the optics to reality and to respond to today's challenges on which the future of Europe will depend, said Maricic.

He assessed that although in the past three decades the EU has not remained immune to either external or internal crises, and we see that today, but 30 years later Europe is hard to find another, different project that would replace it.

- I believe that the significance of the Maastricht Treaty for an increasingly connected Europe will continue today and will continue to pulsate in this turbulent time in which we live. I would say that the results and success of this process will be confirmed in this time of storm, when the words unity, solidarity, democracy, sovereignty and integrity will have their true sound and will gain a lot of meaning, concluded the Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs. .