PM Petkov after meeting with his Dutch counterpart Rutte: Bulgaria cannot afford an oil embargo on Russia

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov confirmed that Bulgaria will not impose an oil embargo on Russia and expressed confidence that the European Commission will include the country amongst those countries that will be exempt from imposing the new sanctions package.

"We believe that Bulgaria did its part in stopping the cash flow to Putin by not agreeing to the changes in payments requested by Gazprom. The EC understands that we cannot go from 90% to 0% dependence on Russian gas supplies and at the same time stop our only refinery working with oil from Russia. Bulgaria has shown that it does not fold to foreign pressure and has the will. But for oil, we are not in a situation to take this potential risk either," Prime Minister Kiril Petkov pointed out.

Mark Rutte congratulated Bulgaria and Poland for the stance they took towards Russia's demands for payment in roubles.

"What Poland and Bulgaria did in response to Gazprom was a very strong reaction from the whole EU to Russia. And I want to congratulate you for that and thank you that we can be together," Rutte said.

At the Council of Ministers, the two held a face-to-face meeting followed by a plenary session of the two delegations.

"We talked about our common position on energy security. We have to respect the contractual relations and no one can unilaterally change contracts with member states in Europe. We have a vision of zero corruption. We discussed the fact that Russian energy projects involve corruption and this type of influence in the EU is absolutely unacceptable," Prime Minister Kiril Petkov pointed out.

The Bulgarian government, with its will against corruption, is the surest way to our entry into Schengen and we just have to walk the path, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said after the meeting with his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte.

The two discussed important joint projects in the IT sector, agriculture and logistics. A fund for new technologies in agriculture is expected to be operational by September.

"We want to work - in the field of economy, green economy, including this fund. We discussed the war in Ukraine, Putin's popularity in Bulgaria is falling to unprecedented levels. The Netherlands is helping Bulgaria with fighter jets. The threat from Russia - we have to tackle it together. Countries need to work together, constructively, to be safe. In the economy, we must prepare for Europe after the war. We are so far apart in terms of distance, but we agree on these issues. We have friends in Europe - here in Sofia. The mission in October on military issues - the fight against corruption - this is a common agenda," Mark Rutte stressed.