site.btaGerman Businesses Want Calmer, Stabler Political Situation

The President of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (GBITC), Tim Kurth, said that hardships have become more frequent in Bulgaria while businesses wish for a little more calm and stability in politics. “We will see what the next days will bring and what impact all this will have on German-Bulgarian relations and us all,” he said Thursday on the sidelines of the Chamber's General Assembly.

Kurt also commented the effects of the war in Ukraine on the economy and business.

In a video address to the forum, Volker Treier of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, noted the intensive contacts at state level between the two countries in recent days, referring to the Sofia visits of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, President Rumen Radev's visit to Germany in mid-May. 

Treier pointed out that for these and many other meetings, the Chamber in Bulgaria plays a key role in building bridges between the economy and politics. He thanked the leadership of the Chamber for contributing to making bridges more and more stable when in other places they are being destroyed.

German Ambassador Christoph Eichhorn figuratively described these days of intensive Bulgarian-German meetings as “a German week”. He said that the EU prospects of the Western Balkans were on the agenda of “the German week” and that everybody is working hard on the matter. He would not say what the outcome of these efforts would be, adding only that these are diplomatic issues that are waiting for an answer. He highlighted, among the topics of interest for Germany, whether or not there was control at the Kaptain Andreevo checkpoint on the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

That remark referred to a political scandal over the recent replacement of the contractor doing phytosanitary control at the checkpoint, which handles much of the traffic of trucks from Turkey to and via Bulgaria.

The diplomat stressed the need to look for joint solutions and added that it is useful to have predictability in politics, to have responsible actions in the context of the upcoming EU programmes for Bulgaria. 

He mentioned increasing inflation among the challenges facing the two countries.

President Rumen Radev was expected to address the Bulgarian-German Chamber forum but had to cancel due to other appointments.