Bulgaria: Dan McLaughlin meets Bulgarian president Georgi Parvanov who today begins a state visit to Ireland.
The European Union should overcome "expansion fatigue" and realise Bulgaria will bring security, economic opportunity and cultural diversity to the bloc when it joins in 2007, the Balkan nation's president declared ahead of a state visit to Ireland.
President Georgi Parvanov, who will meet President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today, urged EU leaders to consider the needs of future members Bulgaria and Romania as they thrash out a long-term budget for the quarrelsome club this week.
"There is definitely some fatigue with enlargement and second thoughts that clearly affect the attitude towards Bulgarian and Romanian accession," Mr Parvanov told The Irish Times in the presidential palace in Sofia.
"But I hope European leaders will realise that Bulgaria and Romania will not add to the burden of the EU but, on the contrary, they will reinforce it."
Mr Parvanov, who has guided Bulgaria into NATO and hopes to oversee EU accession on January 1st, 2007, insisted expansion will benefit the entire bloc.
"We can contribute to the external security of the EU in a direction that has always been rather sensitive," he said, noting Bulgaria's border with former Yugoslavia and its Black Sea coast, where Europe traditionally ends and the Middle East begins.
"Bulgaria is a good place to invest, as we are politically stable with a well-educated workforce and a modern legal framework that is friendly to foreign investors.
"And we have long and rich cultural traditions that have been a pillar of European civilisation - something we share with Ireland," Mr Parvanov insisted.
But as British Prime Minister Tony Blair tries to convince the EU's 10 newest members to accept a long-term cut in development funding, Bulgaria and Romania fear economics as well as sentiment may be turning against them across the bloc.
"I hope that our European partners will take into account the requirements of our countries in view of enlargement, and abide by the same rules and norms that were applied to the countries that just acceded," Mr Parvanov said.
Bulgaria and Romania have been urged to intensify efforts to overhaul their legal systems, tighten border controls and establish institutions capable of efficiently handling billions of euros in EU aid, or risk the postponement of accession until 2008.
And while Romania tries to quietly throttle pervasive but unspectacular graft, Bulgaria's security forces are fighting a lurid battle with a murderous mafia.
A string of prominent business and banking figures have died in spectacular contract "hits" in recent years, and most of the killers and their paymasters have escaped capture, abetted by the corruption and incompetence of poorly paid police and judges.
But all that is changing fast, Mr Parvanov insisted.
"We have a new framework for criminal law which is fashioned on the European model, and the new government has undertaken a tough crackdown on organised crime," he said.
"We have succeeded in partially beheading the cartels and some of the organised crime bosses are already in prison."
Bulgaria was also named as the intended destination for a large part of the €38 million stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast last December.
But Mr Parvanov is tight-lipped about claims that the IRA intended to launder money through Bulgaria and set up a money-spinning luxury hotel and holiday complex.
"We have legislation in place that is effective on money laundering and fighting crime," he said.
"What I know on the matter is that after a tip-off, the Bulgarian (security) services got in touch with their Irish partners, and they have been co-operating on that."
Mr Parvanov (48) came to Sofia from the mining region of Pernik to study history at university and, like most current leaders of his generation across the region, he was a member of the local communist party that was toppled from power in 1989.
A soft-spoken father of two, he is viewed as a conciliator who has managed to modernise his socialist party and broaden its support, without alienating a traditional core of older voters, many of whom now crave the lost certainties of the Soviet era.
While maintaining good relations with Russia and Turkey - and being home to a large and influential Turkish minority - Bulgaria's attentions are now focused on the West.
Washington hopes to sign a deal next year to station its troops here, in a strategic shift towards the Middle East that will also bring US soldiers to bases in Romania.
"We are already a member of Nato and are about to join the EU, and this implies not just benefits but responsibilities," Mr Parvanov said.
"Such (US) installations on Bulgarian territory are seen as a source of greater security, not just for individual countries but for the whole Balkan region, and even for neighbouring regions further afield."
He is quick to deny any Bulgarian involvement in the CIA's alleged operation of secret jails and prisoner transfer flights in Eastern Europe.
"According to the information I have, I can say no such flights have taken place over the territory of this country."
On his two-day visit to Dublin, Mr Parvanov is keen to convince Irish business leaders of the "hospitable and enterprising spirit" of his countrymen.
But he is also expected to discuss with the President and the Taoiseach a legal case that he calls "one of the most painful and poignant issues of the past few years" for Bulgarians.
Five Bulgarian nurses are facing execution in Libya for infecting 426 children with HIV, despite complaints from the EU and US that the women were forced to sign confessions under torture.
Scientific and legal experts say the nurses are scapegoats for the Libyan hospital that gave the children HIV-contaminated blood.
"We value highly the solidarity of our international partners . . . in trying to help the infected children and their families and at the same time look for a fair solution for our medics," Mr Parvanov said.
"I feel that we are closer to a solution than ever before," the president said.