Many Europeans believe that common European defence will be useful for the Old Continent and will contribute to addressing today's risks and threats, according to data from a recent poll published at an international conference on "European Defence - Opportunities and Perspectives". The European agenda, however, is dominated by topics and issues that are often far removed from those of defence and security.

The reason why European citizens do not understand the importance of the subject are different. According to the Chairman of the Sofia Security Forum, Yordan Bozhilov, one of them is related to the different assessment of the European countries regarding the risks and threats facing the EU. Another reason is related to the different defence culture and work in critical situations, allowing some of the countries to make decisions faster than others. It is also true that the defence capabilities and bases in different countries are not on the same level. There is also a different view of the role of NATO and the US in security and defence. Furthermore, no general decision exists on the structure and involvement of EU Member States in joint defence. For Germany, the participation of all European countries is important, and France wants to cooperate with only some of them.

The Chairman of the Defence Committee in the National Assembly, General Konstantin Popov, said that security and stability in the EU and the Balkans was one of the priorities of the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU a year ago which the country was able to fulfil. He also praised the strategic defence review, which is important in terms of Bulgaria's readiness and ability to perform both military and peacekeeping operations to help the population.

As for the rearmament of the Bulgarian army, in an interview with Radio Bulgaria former Defence Minister Angel Naydenov pointed out:

“I hope that the Defence Minister's commitment will be fulfilled and that by July we may have a draft contract for the delivery of the new type of combat aircraft. At the same time the bids for participation in the acquisition of the new type of military patrol boat were also opened. We expect that in the first half of June we will have the decision of the interdepartmental commission with the appropriate ranking and a designated subcontractor. As for the third of the major modernization projects - armoured fighting vehicles for the infantry, we are unfortunately still at the stage of discussing the criteria that this project must meet and the capabilities that the combat machines must possess. Unfortunately, it is lagging behind the other two projects, but I hope we can catch up with the missed time.”

Naydenov also added that modernization projects were the subject of bilateral contracts, and part of them could be involved in multinational projects that would receive some funding from the European Defence Fund. Bulgaria has experience in participating in such projects as it is currently part of three of them – for increasing the military mobility, for creating logistics hubs to support a certain type of operations and for upgrading the maritime surveillance system.

Photos: BGNES and armymedia.bg