Bulgaria, 1997

I would like, first of all,

on behalf of the Bulgarian delegation to congratulate

Mr. Udovenko on his election to the presidency of the fifty-

second session of the General Assembly. His vast

experience and knowledge will be of great importance for

the successful fulfilment of the tasks facing the

Organization today. I would also like to express our

appreciation to his predecessor, Mr. Razali Ismail, for his

competence in presiding over the fifty-first session.

The statements of previous speakers have proved the

importance of the necessity for an efficient overall reform

of the United Nations. I would like to declare Bulgaria s

support for the position of the European Union, as stated in

this general debate by the Deputy Prime Minister and

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, Mr. Jacques

Poos.

The word “reform” has been used so much today in

different parts of the world that I would be afraid of

classifying United Nations reform with the various other

reforms advocated by numerous politicians. If I take the

liberty of sharing the Bulgarian experience, it is because

in early 1997 my country lived through its genuine

reformist resurrection. Hundreds of thousands of citizens

walked in the streets of Sofia and other Bulgarian cities

and towns to demand opportunities, not well-being. Their

voice precipitated early parliamentary elections and

brought a disastrous rule to an end.

Obviously, three things are needed for the success of

reform: vision, strategy and courage. The vision about

where we want to go, the strategy for getting there and

the courage to begin.

I hope that the fifty-second session of the General

Assembly will be remembered for decisive progress in

designing and carrying out the reform of the United

Nations. We have already heard the profound analysis and

the valuable proposals put forward in the report of the

Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan. It is now the turn of

the representatives of Member States to commit their

vision, sense of strategy and courage.

Let me briefly present our views on the main aspects

of the reform of the United Nations. The Bulgarian

Government has thoroughly studied the proposals and the

report of the Secretary-General. In principle, we support

and approve of these proposals.

The Republic of Bulgaria considers the ongoing

discussion within the United Nations on the reform and

enlargement of the Security Council to be positive and

substantive. In our view, the decisions on these important

matters should be reached by consensus. We believe that

the enlargement should reflect the increased number of

United Nations Member States. On the other hand, the

growing economic and political potential of some

Member States may attest to their ability and maturity to

successfully assume the responsibilities and meet the

challenges of permanent members of the Security

Council.

A fair decision on the enlargement of the Council

should preserve the balance between the permanent and

non-permanent members, as well as among the regional

groups. Such a decision should also include the allocation

of an additional non-permanent seat for the Group of

Eastern European States.

We support the efforts aimed at further improving

the early warning system of the Organization. The new

challenges to international peace and security demand an

25

enhanced role for United Nations peacekeeping operations.

As an active participant in United Nations peacekeeping

operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia,

Tajikistan and elsewhere, Bulgaria welcomes the growing

efficiency of the Security Council and also supports an

enhanced role for the Secretary-General in the field of

preventive diplomacy.

Bulgaria shares the view that future peacekeeping

operations should encompass the whole complex of

political, humanitarian and military aspects of peacekeeping

in order to achieve maximum efficiency. Close cooperation

with the regional security organizations and other relevant

bodies is of key importance to the success of future United

Nations peacekeeping efforts as well.

For years now the United Nations has been operating

under the burden of a serious financial crisis. Bulgaria

supports the initiatives contained in the report of the

Secretary-General aimed at elaborating criteria and

mechanisms for stringent financial discipline, strict control

and accountability. Such an approach could contribute to

the successful implementation of the administrative reform

and reorganization of the Secretariat.

We believe that a new scale of assessments for

contributions to the United Nations regular and

peacekeeping budgets would allow greater account to be

taken of the financial potential of individual Member States.

Bulgaria shares the ideas expressed by the Secretary-

General that the reform should be implemented within the

framework of a complex approach that would not neglect

the specific needs of the countries in transition and the

smaller States.

We support the efforts aimed at restructuring the

governing institutions of the United Nations in the socio-

economic field; at raising the operational capacity of the

Economic and Social Council and of the specialized funds

and programmes; and at transferring funds from

management and administration to social and economic

programmes.

As Assembly members are probably aware, 1997 was

a difficult but successful year for Bulgaria. The beginning

of the year was marked by an acute economic, financial and

political crisis, which resulted in the appointment of a

caretaker government, the dissolution of the Bulgarian

Parliament and early elections. At the same time, the

civilized, peaceful and constitutional way in which

Bulgarian society overcame the political crisis is a very

important sign of the maturity of democracy in the country.

At the elections held last April the Union of

Democratic Forces won an overwhelming majority for

their agenda: financial stabilization, market-oriented

structural economic reform and speedy privatization; the

strengthening and modernizing of State administration;

rule of law and combating organized crime and

corruption; and the integration of Bulgaria into the Euro-

Atlantic community of nations.

We have made every effort to implement this

strategy, and today we already have the first positive

results. In the political sphere, the transition to the rule of

law, political pluralism and respect for fundamental

human rights and freedoms has been completed. The

democratic institutions are stable and enjoy the broad

support of more than 50 per cent of the people. In the

economic sphere, a currency board was successfully

introduced as a means of guaranteeing financial

stabilization and of restoring the confidence of the

international financial institutions and business circles in

Bulgaria. This has resulted in a radical decrease of the

inflation rate and an increase in foreign investment and

the country s currency reserves. The results of the

crackdown on crime and corruption have re-established

respect for law and order.

Here I would like to point out that Bulgaria attaches

great importance to the concerted efforts of the world

community in the fight against organized crime and

terrorism. We look forward to contributing to the efforts

to elaborate the future international convention for the

suppression of terrorist bombings and for the drafting of

a widely accepted text of the statute of the international

criminal court.

We are also committed to draft regional programmes

for preventing organized crime, international terrorism,

illicit drugs and arms trafficking, illicit trade in nuclear

materials and the trafficking of people.

The desire of the Bulgarian Government to join the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the

European Union underlies our foreign policy and is

overwhelmingly supported by the Bulgarian nation. For

us, accession to these institutions is an expression of the

European identity of Bulgaria and an integral element of

the political and economic transformation of the country.

It is a question of immediate national interest and

strategic priority, a matter of choice of civilization; and

not an issue of politics of the day.

26

Bulgaria considers the decisions reached at the NATO

Summit in Madrid as a historic opening of the alliance to

the new European democracies. We feel strongly that the

enlargement should continue as a geographically balanced

process aimed at achieving equal security and stability in

different regions; thus the risks of new dividing lines or

grey zones in Europe would be avoided.

Our Government is making great efforts to intensify

its preparations for accession to the European Union, with

a view to meeting the requirements for membership in the

nearest possible future. We strongly hope for a political

decision by the European Union to start the negotiations

with all associated countries at the beginning of 1998. This

would be a confirmation of the position that all candidate

countries have equal chances of becoming members.

Bulgaria considers these integration processes as a

significant contribution to the strengthening of regional

stability and security in south-eastern Europe. The

Bulgarian Government is making every effort to promote

European standards of international conduct in this part of

the continent. Our approach has been backed by a number

of important initiatives at the regional level. The

cooperation between NATO members and partner countries

in the area is an important element in this process, and

Bulgaria has advanced ideas for an enhanced Euro-Atlantic

cooperation on the security of south-eastern Europe and the

Black Sea.

Bulgaria will also continue to work actively along the

lines of its 1996 initiative for security, stability and

cooperation in south-eastern Europe. We attach great

importance to the coordination of our efforts with the other

initiatives for cooperation in the region, especially with the

Royaumont process launched by the European Union and

the South-east European Cooperative Initiative, sponsored

by the United States.

Our aspiration to non-permanent membership of the

Security Council for the 2002-2003 period demonstrates our

readiness to assume responsibilities for peace and security

both in the region and in a wider international context.

As members know, Bulgaria has suffered tremendous

losses as a result of the strict implementation of the

sanctions imposed by the Security Council against the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).

Combined with the disadvantages caused by the sanctions

against Libya and Iraq, the total amount of the direct and

indirect costs to Bulgaria is comparable to the country s

foreign debt. Therefore, the Republic of Bulgaria will

continue to attach particular importance to the work being

done within the United Nations system to address more

effectively problems related to the implementation of

Article 50 of the Charter.

We welcome the provisions of the General Assembly

resolutions urging the organizations within the United

Nations system, international financial institutions and

other international bodies to continue to address more

specifically and directly the issue of economic assistance

to third States affected by the implementation of the

sanctions. I should like to draw the Assembly s attention

to the possibility of granting certain exemptions from

sanctions or creating a preferential regime for the most

gravely affected third States. Naturally, these exemptions

and preferences should be in accordance with the Charter.

We believe that the burden of the specific economic

problems created by the sanctions should be fairly

distributed among all third countries and not borne by

neighbouring States only.

We strongly believe that while negotiating with

sanction-affected third countries, the international

financial institutions should take account of the need to

compensate them indirectly.

It is our understanding that the United Nations

specialized agencies play an important role and provide

valuable support to countries in their efforts to achieve

sustainable development. The reforms which are under

way in these agencies need the support of the Member

States. The reform processes in the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations

Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and other

organizations give us hope of success.

Bulgaria believes that the activities of international

forums and bodies for human rights should be aimed at

ensuring the effective exercise of these rights by every

human being. The implementation of international

standards could be achieved by improving existing

mechanisms and by a constructive and open dialogue on

the most sensitive issues. This approach is not directed a

priori against any country or group of countries. In this

context, Bulgaria attaches high importance to the

guarantees for the human rights of Bulgarians living

abroad and is closely watching the situation of Bulgarian

minorities. We consider respect for the rights of

Bulgarians in neighbouring States and the related

implementation of international human rights standards as

an important factor in the promotion of bilateral relations.

27

The monitoring and the effective control of the

implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms

remains of critical importance, and Bulgaria reiterates its

support for the efforts of the High Commissioner for

Human Rights. I should like at this point to welcome the

appointment of Ms. Mary Robinson to this high post and to

wish her every success in her activities.

The Bulgarian Government regards the possible spread

of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery

as one of the major concerns of the 1990s. The existing

regimes of multilateral treaties, such as the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Chemical

Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons

Convention, provide for basic restrictive norms in this field.

The Republic of Bulgaria supports all international

endeavours to meet the goals of non-proliferation and

stands for a further strengthening of these regimes.

The Conference on Disarmament is an appropriate

forum for negotiations on the elimination of certain types

of conventional weapons. A long-lasting solution should be

found to the problem of anti-personnel landmines, the ban

on which has humanitarian and disarmament aspects and

needs a verification regime. We believe that the text of a

new Convention that would ultimately ban all anti-

personnel landmines, which was agreed at the Oslo

Diplomatic Conference this month, could well serve as a

basis for achieving a comprehensive and widely accepted

international agreement. We also hope that the Ottawa

process and the negotiations in the Conference on

Disarmament will be mutually supportive and will result in

an effective ban on anti-personnel landmines.

In conclusion, finding an adequate solution to these

problems will be impossible without the successful reform

and restructuring of the United Nations Organization and of

all its bodies. Therefore, we expect a decisive breakthrough

in this direction at the present session of the General

Assembly. I am personally convinced that by the end of

this session the United Nations will have changed, and that

this change will be for the better.