Bulgarian parliament does not support signing security deal with Ukraine

The Bulgarian parliament has refused to approve the signing of a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine. Boyko Borissov, former Prime Minister and leader of the GERB party (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria), who had previously supported the initiative, has changed his position.

According to Euractiv, Bulgaria's acting Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev promised in October to join the countries that have signed bilateral security agreements with Ukraine.

Glavchev was expected to sign the agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during their visit to Brussels on 19 December, but the interim government refused and sought a mandate from the parliament, where Borissov's GERB party holds the most seats.

Only six of the EU's 27 member states – Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Malta and Cyprus – have not signed the agreement.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the GERB party has supported military assistance to Ukraine, and Borissov himself has often highlighted this support as evidence of his party's pro-Western stance.

But, the situation has now changed, as Borissov stated.

"Six months ago, we would have categorically supported such an agreement," Borissov said, adding that today such support is equal to "buying a factory on 9 September".

The correct popular expression is "to buy a factory on 8 September", which means to make a very bad deal. On 9 September 1944, the Soviet army occupied Bulgaria, which did not bode well for factory owners.

Borissov explained that the reason for this was the growing discussion in Europe and the US about achieving peace in Ukraine.

He added that "we will work for a reconstruction or peace process" in Ukraine, but stressed that it should be a regular government that "signs a treaty that is mutually beneficial".

Borissov did not explain what he saw as the proposed agreement's lack of mutual benefit. Asked how a regular government, of which the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is a part, could sign a military cooperation agreement with Ukraine, Borissov said that "if the agreement is mutually beneficial, no party will object".

The BSP opposes any military assistance to Ukraine. Despite its modest number of MPs (20 out of 240), the BSP could become an important coalition partner in a GERB-led government.

Borissov also stated that the interim government does not need a parliamentary mandate to sign an agreement with Ukraine.

A few minutes after Borissov's speech, acting Prime Minister Glavchev commented from Brussels. He rejected accusations that his decision to ask for a mandate from the National Assembly was an attempt to sabotage the government talks.

He said that the only reason he had sought approval from MPs was because of the proposed 10-year duration of the agreement.

Vessela Tcherneva, deputy director of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former adviser to former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, told Euractiv that this was a "gift" for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is visiting Sofia on Friday.

Petkov is the leader of the We Continue the Change party, the second largest force in parliament. Without this force, it is almost impossible to form a government. They strongly support the signing of a security agreement with Ukraine and state that it can be signed without a vote in parliament.

It should be noted that Bulgaria has been experiencing a political crisis for several years due to the parliament's inability to form a stable government, which has resulted in seven early elections in the country over the past four years.

It was reported in late October that a security agreement was being prepared between Ukraine and Bulgaria.

To date, Ukraine has signed almost 30 such bilateral documents along with the Ukraine Compact, a multilateral document containing commitments to support Ukraine.