Bulgaria’s ABV held presidential debates in Veliko Tarnovo

03/21/16 05:57
(http://www.klassa.bg/)

Bulgaria’s ABV held presidential debates in Veliko Tarnovo

ABV party held a discussion within the 2016 Presidential Debates initiative in the town of Veliko Tarnovo on Sunday.
“Strong state means strong, modern and military capable army. This is a thesis that was and still is topical,” said Georgi Parvanov, leader of the ABV party and former president of Bulgaria 2002-2012, speaking during the debate.
“In the very first year of my mandate as a president I said that the armed forces had the capacity to protect the state. I do not hear this statement today. The defence should be a budget priority, I have said this many times and I will continue repeating it,” Mr Parvanov remarked.
“Currently the Consultative Council on National Security is a tribune for reading opinions and organising scandals,” said Georgi Parvanov.
In his words, this should be immediately changed. Mr Parvanov added that the sittings of the Council should be prepared much better and in details before summoning them.
“What is more important now is to try to change the law. The Consultative Council on National Security now has the right to vote on positions that do not have a legal status. We should change this. The Council should make decisions that have the power of a legislative act,” the former president remarked.
In his words, the president should not stay impartial towards what is happening in the country.
“Reinstating the compulsory military service will be expensive and inefficient,” the former president opined further.
According to Parvanov, the modernisation of the Bulgarian army should take place with the active involvement of the Bulgarian defence industry, which will lead not only to a growth in the economy and jobs but also to more investment flows to the country.
The ABV leader also commented on the arguments about whether the Bulgarian army should be professional or there should be compulsory military service, stressing the country ought to find a way to compensate for the lack of military training for young people.
In his words, reinstating the compulsory military service will be inefficient.
“My stance on the professionalisation of the Bulgarian army has been and will always be in favour of it. Reinstating the compulsory military service would be not only too expensive but also cannot be justified with respect to the required high fighting efficiency of our armed forces,” Georgi Parvanov added.
He noted the state, including the next president in his or her role of commander-in-chief, should work for extra motivation in the Bulgarian armed forces and for the Bulgarian professional army’s prestige.
“We cannot outline the major factors of the national security without the role and the place of the president in them,” said General Miho Mihov, MP with the ABV party.
In his words, this issue should be a focus in the elections campaign of all candidates at the forthcoming presidential elections in order to take the helm at the President’s Office.
“The issue about the coordination of the organisational structure of the national security system, which includes different specific elements, is even more important,” the politician commented further.
General Chavdar Chervenkov, former Bulgarian interior minister and former military intelligence chief, also spoke during the debate.
“The army should have joined protection of our national borders long ago,” he said.
“What strikes me in the past 20 years, since active work on the matter started, is that we adopted a model at the beginning of the transition period and are actively exiting it. Only the names of programmes change in the defence sector but nothing essential changes; the same is valid for internal security, too. Security should be approached in an integrated manner; the army should not be separated from the interior ministry. These are internal and external security. The situation in the world in general and in the regions close to us has thus changed that it is very difficult for us to separate these two spheres as their tasks have overlapped,” Chervenkov commented.
“Half of activities concern internal security interests. Remember how long we tried to voice our opinion the army should join border protection,” the specialist stated.
In his view, it took a year and a half for the President and the Minister of Defence to realise that.
“And we lived to see the law amended so that the army could provide cooperation to the Ministry of Interior authorities in the protection of national borders,” Chavdar Chervenkov pointed out.
In his view, it is time the security sector is perceived in an integrated way and is not divided into police and armed forces but is viewed as “national security”.
“Both institutions as well as some other structures should find their place,” the expert opined.
He added the problem with financing existed alongside those issues.
General Rumen Milanov, former head of the Bulgarian riot police (1999-2000), of the General Directorate for Fight against Organised Crime (GDBOP) (2000-2004), and of the National Security Service (2004-2007) as well as former director of Centre for Prevention and Combating Corruption and Organised Crime (BORKOR), also made comments at the debate.
“I want to see the President’s Office exert influence to tackle problems in national security,” he pointed out.
Milanov recalled the national security strategy contained three main priorities – counteracting or fight against corruption, financial reinforcement of the budget, and a fast and fair judicial process.
“As you see, 5 years passed and we still wander in this field and I would like to personally see the President help overcome these problems,” the specialist stated.
He added when the subject of national security was commented on, the prism of the president’s role and place had to be approached.
General Milanov recalled a national security strategy that was more of a defensive nature than of an offensive one had been formulated.
“We were thinking back then it was now the time to strengthen internal security. In a legislative aspect, several positive steps in this direction should be undeniably taken into account – we have a law on military information or military intelligence, a law on the National Intelligence Service, and others,” he explained.

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Публикувана на 03/21/16 05:57 http://www.klassa.bg/News/Read/article/265875_Bulgaria%E2%80%99s+ABV+held+presidential+debates+in+Veliko+Tarnovo