“Congratulations for the success reached in Brussels, you have gone through a lot of difficulties and hardships but have succeeded finally. I am glad the support for Serbia’s EU membership had always been and will be the position of Bulgaria, so that we could be together in the EU, National Assembly president Mihail Mikov said at the meeting with Serbia’s foreign minister Ivan Mrkich.

“Your help will accelerate our accession process. The memories of your country’s EU joining are rather fraiche and so is your experience, as is the fact that Bulgarians are familiar with our mentality, something that will assist us in becoming full member of the EU”, responded Ivan Mrkich.

In the view of Mihail Mikov the path to the EU is thorny but worthy of going through. The EU membership provides our two peoples with a modern perspective. Mrkich noted the European Union was one of the greatest peace projects of post war Europe. He expressed confidence that parliamentary diplomacy could be more effective than the professional one, saying without contacts between parliaments’ representatives European democracy could not be built.

Minister Mrkich expressed the opinion that there are hardly two other peoples so closed to each other. He noted the two countries will mark in 2014 the 135th year since the establishment of their diplomatic relations. “We have been together for centuries, we are relatives, we have one blood, we have common ancestors and support common values”, the Serbian guest pointed out.

The two parties expressed satisfaction that the relations between the two countries had never before been so intensive. The work on preparing the Treaty for Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborhood goes on. Among the topics of discussion were the possibilities to enlarge the economic cooperation, the preparatory works for the “South Stream” pipeline construction, and the creation of tripartite police center between Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia in the border town of Vidin, the construction of the highway Salash-Novo Korito. Mihail Mikov praised the foundation of the Bulgaria-Serbia Trade Chamber, an entity that will speed up the economic and trade relations between the two countries.