Andrey Kovachev, MEP from GERB/EPP: Opportunities for economic growth should be sought in parallel to the fiscal pact

- Mr. Kovachev, what is the reason for Nicolas Sarkozy’s loss at the elections? He is among the French presidents with a single mandate.
- Sarkozy’s mandate coincided with one of the most serious financial and economic crises in Europe after World War II and the changes in Eastern Europe. During this crisis, France under Sarkozy, along with Germany, upheld the projected measures for overcoming the difficulties and tightening financial discipline in particular, which is always connected with budget restrictions and hard to be accepted by the majority of citizens. That is why the French voted in this way.
During the first round of the elections, the two main presidential candidates - Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy - received less than 50% of the vote. This shows that the opinion of the average voter as to who of the two candidates proposes a better way out of the crisis has not been consolidated. This is democracy.

- Do you believe Hollande’s pre-election promise for revising the EU’s fiscal pact is actually feasible?
- There is such a tendency – before elections candidates usually promise more than can be fulfilled. I don’t think it realistic to reopen and start debating again the fiscal pact, which has already been signed and ratified by many countries, especially if Germany maintains its position. In my opinion, it is short-sighted to work in such a direction. I believe the direction in which we should work in parallel to the fiscal pact (which is a common policy of financial discipline and austerity, aimed at financial stability) is towards finding opportunities for economic growth, which, of course, should not lead to financial destabilisation. There must be a balance between financial stability and discipline, and investments. The European Commission in the person of Jose Manuel Barroso has already expressed support for investing in growth, which includes investments in pan-European infrastructure projects with common European loans and increasing the capital of the European Investment Bank by at least €10 bn. This should actually result in assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises, the introduction of a tax on financial transactions, proposed by the European Commission, and more efficient use of EU funds, which is very important for Bulgaria.

- The markets reacted negatively to the election results in Greece where no outright winner emerged. Do you think the future of the Eurozone is questionable again after the lull in recent weeks?
- The elections in Greece failed to give a distinct answer as to who Greek citizens want to be ruled by and what government they want. This is an extremely bad signal for both Europe and the Eurozone, because Greece has already undertaken its commitments with regard to the reforms and loans. Parties denying and rejecting the arrangements already reached have now entered the Greek Parliament. That is why Antonis Samaras returned the mandate and is, now, with the second strongest party, the left-wing SYRIZA. However, I don’t think they will manage to form a government and new elections are quite probable. This will again undermine confidence in Greece and we can only hope for the Greek civil society to be at a sufficiently high level to avoid excesses.
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