EU ambassadors in Sofia met with political leader sanctioned for corruption

4 months ago 34

Belgian Ambassador to Bulgaria Frédéric Meurice brought together EU ambassadors and DPS leader Delyan Peevski, who has been sanctioned for corruption by the US under the Global Magnitsky Act and by the UK – again for corruption.

The Belgian EU Presidency in Bulgaria initiated the meeting with the EU ambassadors on Europe Day on 9 May. This was Peevski’s first meeting at this level since June 2021, when the US sanctioned him and related companies and organisations for significant corruption under the Global Magnitsky Act, which included a travel ban and asset freeze.

In 2023, the UK sanctioned Peevski on the same grounds, announcing that the sanctions against Peevski resulted from joint UK-US action to ‘root out corruption in Bulgaria’.

Within the framework of the Belgian EU Council Presidency, the ambassadors of the EU member states met at the Belgian Residence with a delegation from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), led by its President, Mr Delyan Peevski. Together, they held an in-depth discussion on several issues of national and regional interest. The discussion took place in an open and cordial atmosphere, during which all issues of importance to the participants were openly discussed,” the DPS said after the meeting.

The party added that the Belgian EU Presidency in Bulgaria thanked the DPS delegation and the local heads of the EU missions for their contribution to the discussion.

Bulgaria’s prosecutor’s office, the National Revenue Agency and other institutions never found evidence of corruption by Peevski, whose appointment as head of counterintelligence in 2013 led to mass protests and the fall of the then Bulgarian Socialist Party-DPS government.

In February 2024, Peevski became the first ethnic Bulgarian to be elected leader of the Turkish minority DPS party. Peevski was a key figure in the parliamentary Euro-Atlantic and majority during the PP-DB cabinet, supported by GERB and DPS. That government fell in April.

“We cannot be angry with European ambassadors for legitimising someone whom neither Bulgarian society nor the Bulgarian judiciary considers illegitimate,” Vesela Cherneva of the European Council on Foreign Relations told Euractiv.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo is a member of the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD), a party in the European political family of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, of which the MRF is a member. Only the ambassadors of France and the Netherlands, Joël Meijer and Simon van der Burg, were absent from the meeting, which was attended by the second persons from the embassies.

Vesela Cherneva pointed out that despite the Magnitsky sanctions list, an integral part of Bulgarian society voted for Peevski, and the Bulgarian judiciary obviously has no claims against him. “Objectively speaking, there is no reason for EU ambassadors not to meet with him; he is also the leader of one of the political forces that has a great chance of participating in the next government,” Cherneva said.

However, the foreign policy expert believes that “the timing of this meeting is unfortunate”. This is the day before the start of the election campaign, and I hope that they (the ambassadors, b.a.) have considered that this meeting will be used in the election campaign in a way that it should not be,” Vesela Cherneva said.

Political analyst Georgi Kiriakov also told Euractiv that Peevski had every right to attend such meetings as the real leader of a legitimate Bulgarian party that is part of the European political family.

“He used the opportunity as leader of the DPS to legitimise himself as an element of a larger party (ALDE, b.a.). He did it first during the PP-DB government when he legitimised himself as a Euro-Atlantic, and now as a political leader and figure of European importance, having done it on Bulgarian territory,” Kiriakov said. European ambassadors cannot refuse such meetings with a party that will participate in the next European Parliament – except for symbolic gestures of non-participation, he concluded.

In a statement on social media, investigative website BIRD.bg said that Europe had shaken hands with Peevski and wiped out the fight against corruption in Bulgaria. “The European Union has made a mockery of the rule of law and the fight against corruption in Bulgaria. BIRD is ending its participation in EU-funded projects and will return the rest of a grant to a Belgian investigative funding organisation that works with EU money,” the media outlet reported.

So far, Peevski has held meetings with the ambassadors of Morocco – Zakia El Midaoui, the United Arab Emirates – Sultan Rashid Sultan Alkaitoob Alnuaimi, and Ukraine – Olesya Ilashchuk.

(Emiliya Milcheva, Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)