26 July 2012Bulgaria is facing a new reality that brought to the forefront the fact the country has serious problems with its national security, President Rosen Plevneliev, says.
Speaking Thursday at the opening of the meeting of the Consultative Council on National Security, KSNS, Plevneliev, stated that the terrorist act in the Black Sea city of Burgas was a blatant and daring challenge for the national security.
The July 18 terrorist attack in Bulgaria's Burgas, also known as the Burgas Bus Bombing, killed 5 Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver at the Sarafovo Airport.
In his address to the KSNS, the President stressed the attack was obviously well-planned, backed by significant resources, and difficult to foresee and prevent.
"We must respond to this challenge with effort to guarantee to society that this would not happen again and innocent people would not be subjected to terror. We face a new reality and we acknowledge serious problem with our national security. We must have a responsible approach now, examine the processes in the security sector and find out what and how has changed; is our counter-terrorism model adequate; do we have the necessary resources for it; how do we use them and manage them; why this happened in Bulgaria. On the base of this detailed analysis, we must work on complex and concrete measures for prevention and countering of terrorism," said he.
Plevneliev announced the meeting at the beginning of July under his commitment to hold one KSNS sitting every quarter. The topic for discussion is the European Commission's Cooperation and Verifications Mechanism, CVM, its functioning, issues and trends. The terrorist attack was included as an emergency extra item on the agenda.
At the meeting, the Head of State voiced his opinion that the recommendations in the EC monitoring report under CVM are fair and fully attainable by Bulgarian institutions.
"The report was objective both on the successes in the fight against corruption and organized crime and on the still existing problems in the justice system and home affairs. We must see this report as a tool to help us in what we must achieve by the end of 2013. The problems are clearly stated, the solutions are up to us, not Brussels. The goal is justice and security for all Bulgarians and we need to reach consensus right now. 2013 is an election year for Bulgaria and these measures will be applied by a new government and for this reason we must have continuity," the President pointed out.
Under the law, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Defense, of Interior, of Foreign Affairs, and of Finance, the Chief of Defense and the chairs of all parliamentary represented parties are members of KSNS.
The Chair of the Supreme Court of Cassations, the Chief Prosecutor, the PM's Chief of Staff, the Justice Minister, the Chief Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Security Council at the cabinet, the Director of Military Information Services at the Defense Ministry, the Director of the National Intelligence Services and the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament were all invited and are in attendance. |
