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Bulgaria, Greece call for regional integration of SE Europe

18 October 2013 19:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. High officials from Bulgaria and Greece here on Friday called for the deepening of the regional integration of the countries of South Eastern Europe, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"No doubts, fostering the cooperation in the region may become a powerful instrument to boost economic growth and contribute to the recovery of the European economy," Daniela Bobeva, Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development, said at the EU-Balkan Summit "Paving the way to recovery and growth" organized by The Economist.

Bulgaria and its neighbors were not ambitious enough in designing joint policies in attracting foreign investors to the region, Bobeva said. "We more compete, than working together," she said.

They didn't need to compete, they had to work together to make the Balkans a better place for both Balkan and foreign investors, Bobeva said.

Developing a joint strategy for attracting tourists for the region was a possible option, she said.

Bobeva also urged for building sufficient infrastructure to foster regional economic ties and strengthen the complementarities of South-Eastern European economies.

"How long it took to build a second bridge on Danube, and why we don't build more? Even during the Roman Empire, there were six bridges over Danube between Bulgaria and Romania," she said.

In turn, Dimitris Kourkoulas, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, said the forthcoming Greek Presidency of the EU in 2014, would be committed to promote the enlargement priorities of the Union.

"Although the unprecedented current economic crisis has called for drastic structural reforms and despite the fact that internal cohesion has often been tested, the simple truth is that the EU remains the only good option for European countries," Kourkoulas said.

"The EU cannot afford to exclude the Western Balkans from the European Project without undermining its own efforts and it cannot ignore the fact that SE Europe has the capacity to contribute greatly and concretely to the EU's strengths," he added.