Georgi Gotev, EURACTIV Is EU adding to the Bulgarian crisis? March 30, 2023

 

Is EU adding to the Bulgarian crisis?

By Georgi Gotev | @GeorgiGotev

Bulgarians will vote in yet another snap election on Sunday (2 April), and my colleagues in Sofia have already described the political crisis and the grim expectations for what lies ahead. I will add a few comments about home-grown Euroscepticism and some Commission initiatives that have backfired and only compounded the crisis in the poorest EU country. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has repeatedly said she was proud of how the EU has dealt with the COVID-19 crisis, particularly by securing fast high-quality vaccines for all Europeans via joint purchases. Bulgaria, however, is not a good example in terms of vaccination. Only 30% of Bulgarians got their first shot, mainly due to powerful anti-vaxxer sentiments fuelled on social media and mainstream TV stations, where the prevailing attitude was “let’s give the floor to everybody”. The same attitude in the media has long persisted about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Many of the anti-vaxxers found a new battle horse in alternative narratives on Ukraine, essentially supporting the Russian narrative that it was the West that attacked Russia. In any case, Bulgaria was left with vast amounts of unused vaccines, costing millions of euros, which it had to dump as the Commission contracts didn’t allow sending them to countries in need. Of course, the overall impression of this initiative was not of a big EU success, as claimed in Brussels.

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The Roundup

It is not in Europe’s interest to decouple itself fully from China, and the bloc should instead look into diplomatic and economic ‘de-risking’, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday (30 March). The negotiations that led to the European Commission brokering the controversial COVID-19 vaccine contracts with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer remain “a business secret”, the chairman of Pfizer France told French Senators during a hearing on Wednesday (29 March). After a unanimous vote in the legal affairs committee last week, the European Parliament adopted on Wednesday (29 March) its position on the protection of the environment through criminal law, including a definition of ecocide backed by stricter penalties.  The European Commission will propose the establishment of a new unit within the EU’s Intellectual Property Office to focus on the transparency of standard patents, according to a draft version of an upcoming regulation seen by EURACTIV. Delayed diagnosis and inequalities in access to treatments across the EU are among the main challenges in fighting multiple myeloma, an incurable and rare form of blood cancer. A large majority in the European Parliament voted in favour of adopting the EU’s pay transparency directive aiming to narrow the EU gender pay gap during a plenary session on Thursday (30 March). Lawmakers in the European Parliament’s industry committee overwhelmingly rejected a motion tabled by German conservative MEP Markus Pieper claiming that the EU’s proposed renewable hydrogen rules were too “restrictive”. The amount of biofuels in Europe’s transport sector is expected to increase after the European Parliament and EU countries agreed in the early hours of Thursday on new rules to spur the use of renewable energy across the bloc. After seven years of ambiguity regarding the German law on data retention, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled it inapplicable and incompatible with EU law on Thursday. Do not miss this week’s EU Politics Decoded: Orbán’s pointless isolation. Look out for… Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans in Bucharest, meets national authorities, stakeholders for Green Deal and climate discussions. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager participates as main guest in Atlantic Council’s Frontpage event on “How Europe is addressing the geopolitical moment and its economic challenges.” Jobs and Social Rights Commissioner Nicolas Schmit visits facilities of Guidance, Innovation for Employment and Entrepreneurship Centre of La Rioja.  Financial Stability Commissioner Mairead McGuinness participates in business lunch organised by Dundalk Chamber of Commerce with local businesses and entrepreneurs (Blackrock, Co. Louth, Ireland).

[Edited by Alice Taylor/Zoran Radosavljevic]