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Bulgaria’s new government and the challenges ahead

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The Bulgarian Parliament backed the new government formed by Kiril Petkov, thus ending a long lasting political crisis, writes Cristian Gherasim.

Kiril Petkov won the parliament’s backing on Monday (13 December) winning 134 of the 240 votes up for grabs becoming the country’s new prime minister. This ends the decade long reign of former centre-right PM Boyko Borisov.

Kiril Petkov, a Harvard graduate and former economy minister, founded the centre-right 'We Continue the Change' party just two months before the election and surprisingly won the 14 November election with 25.7% of the vote.

Petkov announced on Friday that he signed a broad coalition agreement with three other political parties: the Socialist Party, Democratic Bulgaria (center-right) and "There is such a people" (anti-system, populist). Bulgarians are hoping that this new coalition will bring better living standards. Bulgaria remains the poorest EU member state.

“We will not waste another minute, we will not spend an inefficient lev (Bulgarian currency) ", said Kiril Petkov, the 41-year-old entrepreneur who recently converted to politics.

Another priority mentioned by Kiril Petkov: speeding up the vaccination campaign against Covid-19: with only 26% of the population fully vaccinated, this 6.9 million-strong Balkan country is the European Union's last in terms of vaccination and has registered some of the highest COVID mortality rates in the world.

Petkov’s team included also members from various business circles. The Minister of Finance and European Funds in Petkov's government will be his friend, Assen Vassile, 44 years old.

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"Zero corruption will be the motto of our government," Kiril Petkov promised. He wants a reform of the administration and the strengthening of state institutions. "Bulgaria is in dire need of change. We will make every effort to bring the best people to the government and to review the judiciary, "Kiril Petkov said.

The new cabinet will also have to deal with low vaccination rate and an ongoing health crisis due to the COVID pandemic.

Bulgaria is the least vaccinated country in the EU. Similar to Romania more than 90% of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 are not vaccinated. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that just 25.5% of Bulgaria's adults are fully vaccinated, lower that Romania’s 37.2%. This is well below the EU average of 75%.

Bulgaria, with record high COVID mortality rate, much like Romania, has been plagued by fake news and medical specialists calling for people not to vaccinate.

Bulgarian hospitals have been overwhelmed over the past months, with COVID patient sent abroad for treatment.

Neighboring Romania is also looking for help abroad, activating EU's Civil Protection Mechanism. In a statement, the European Commission announced sending medical supplies. In addition to help coming from Austria, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Poland, non-EU member states like Moldova and Serbia also sent in assistance.

Bulgaria has also donated its unused vaccines mainly to neighbouring western Balkan countries. Earlier this summer Health Minister Stoicho Katsarov said that 150,000 COVID-19 vaccines, mostly AstraZeneca, will be given free of charge to countries in the region particularly to North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia.

With many Bulgarians also shunning the vaccines, the Balkan nation is looking outside Europe for places to donate thousands of vaccines. The government in Sofia announced that the remote kingdom of Bhutan will receive 172,500 doses of AstraZeneca jab.

Another hot issue on the new government’s agenda will be Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Area.

Bulgaria and Romania’s bid to join the control-free travel area has been one bumpy ride. After it was approved by the European Parliament in June 2011, the Council of Ministers rejected it in September 2011, with the French, Dutch, Finnish governments citing concerns about shortcomings in anti-corruption measures and in the fight against organized crime. While France switched to backing Romania’s bid, opposition continued from Germany, Finland and the Netherlands. In 2018 the European Parliament voted for the resolution in favor of accepting both countries, requesting that the Council of the European Union "act swiftly" on the matter.

Schengen Areas is the European travel-free area now comprising of 26 European countries -mostly EU but also 4 non-EU member states- that have officially abolished all passport and other types of border control at their mutual borders. The final decision on Schengen Zone accession is more of a political one and must be taken unanimously by all members of the European Council, the EU body made up of the heads of state or government of all EU member countries. This usually comes after the European Commission vets on certain technical criteria and the European Parliament greenlights the procedure.

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