With a meeting with the President of the Parliament of Estonia Eiki Nestor began the official visit of the Bulgarian parliamentary delegation, led by the President of the National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva, in Talin.

Bulgaria and Estonia have sincere friendship, share common priorities and, most importantly, as EU members and future presidents-in-office of the Council of EU in 2018, they have the common will to jointly to seek solutions to the challenges facing the EU today. This was recognized in the talks today by Tsetska Tsacheva and the President of the Parliament of Estonia.

They expressed the common understanding that migration, refugee influxes and the new challenges to the European security are topics which are subject to heated debates in both countries, in which their legislative institutions have been active and committed.

The President of the National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva confirmed the position that only a pan-European solution taking into account the interests of all Member States and addressing with priority the roots of migration could be long-term and working. She added that effective control on the external borders of EU is essential. Before the President of the Parliament of Estonia – a country that supports Bulgaria’s membership in Schengen, Tsetska Tsacheva stated that Bulgaria behaved as a Schengen country and fulfilled strictly the commitments for EU external border controls. Bulgaria and Romania in Schengen – this is a more secure Europe, said the President of the National Assembly.

Exchanged in the talks were opinions on Estonia’s experience in e-governance – a topic which is a priority in Bulgaria too and which is included in the legislative agenda of the 43rd National Assembly. In this regard, highlighted was the need of policies on development of the single digital market and understanding was shared that this is one of the greatest sources of growth and competitiveness for EU, and that these policies will be included in the priorities of the two countries during the EU presidency in 2018.

For both Bulgaria and Estonia the presidency of the Council of EU in 2018 is an extremely important task for which they have been preparing very responsibly. The two presidents agreed at the level of legislative institutions and parliamentary administrations to have a mechanism of constant dialogue and interaction.

Among the topics discussed at the meeting were also the development of parliamentary cooperation, intensification of trade and economic relations, investment cooperation and tourism.
Meetings with the President of the Republic of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves and with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Marina Kaljurand are included in the programme of the Bulgarian parliamentary delegation, as well as with the chairmanship of the Friendship Group Estonia - Bulgaria.

The chairman of the Friendship Group Estonia - Bulgaria Valeri Zhablyanov, the chairman of the Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Committee Nastimir Ananaiev and the deputies Stefan Zhelev and Boris Yanchev are members of the Bulgarian delegation.