Minister Lilyana Pavlova presented the report on the first three months of the Bulgarian Presidency

said the Minister for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU Lilyana Pavlova at a press conference.

At the session of the Council of Ministers earlier today, Minister Pavlova presented a report on the results for the first half of the Bulgarian Presidency. She informed in detail her colleagues of the negotiation process, the progress made on the dossiers, the important legislative achievements, the statistics and analysis for the meetings held in the first three months of presiding the work of the Council of the EU.

More than 1,000 sessions and meetings were held in Sofia, Brussels and Strasbourg during the first three months of the Bulgarian Presidency with nearly 10,000 delegates participating, reported Minister Pavlova. One of the greatest successes is carrying out 64 trialogues i between the Council, the Commission and the Parliament on important topics and achieving significant progress on them. Another 22 meetings of the Council of the EU in different formats, 12 COREPER II i sessions, 13 COREPER I i sessions and 700 working group meetings were held in Brussels, with 100 of the events in the calendar held in Bulgaria.

The Minister for the Bulgarian Presidency reported as success the closed tripartite meeting on the Posted Workers Directive, the adoption of the Rules of Procedure for the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol JPSG, the Regulation on monitoring and reporting CO2 emissions from and fuel consumption of new heavy duty vehicles, the Effort Sharing Regulation for achieving the EU climate goals, the Directive on energy performance of buildings, the Directive on the waste package, the Regulation on geo-blocking when etc. (all dossiers and details can be found in the attached files and the indicated links).

Minister Pavlova noted. Among them are the Summit of the leaders of the EU member states and the states from the Western Balkans to be held at the National Palace of Culture NDK on 17 May. She added that the ambition of the Bulgarian Presidency as a result of this event is the adoption of a Sofia Declaration where all infrastructure projects intended for investments in the region are listed in detail.

Another important topic to be decided upon is the reform of the European Asylum System, better known as the Dublin Regulation, which is a package of seven legislative acts, on which the Bulgarian Presidency proposed a new approach and philosophy for the negotiating parties to agree on. Adoption of some financial directives that are important to both citizens and businesses is pending; the debate on the Multiannual Financial Framework will start too. Bulgaria will maintain its position in favour of keeping the Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy, as well as for providing a budget for the Digital Agenda, for the completion of the Digital Single Market, for protection of personal data and cybersecurity.

Minister Lilyana Pavlova pointed out also that the experts on the Energy Package, and the 8 dossiers in it, are going to have to work hard, as Bulgaria is intending to close 3 of the dossiers by the end of the Presidency. The work on the establishment of a European Prosecutors Office is going on. The negotiations on the so-called Automotive Package on the rights and regulations of the hauliers and companies are developing at a dynamic pace. This is true also on the abolishment of the dual standard in foods.

Minister Lilyana Pavlova used the opportunity to thank the staff of all Ministries and institutions, more than 1,600 experts, who contribute on a daily basis to making Bulgaria a decent President of the Council of the EU and its operations.