Committee Session: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE)

Ivanela Arabadzhieva, Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, opened the session of the committee by introducing the proposal for the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA III). Its objectives span from strengthening rule of law and democracy to supporting territorial and cross-border cooperation. The representatives discussed the potential problems of the IPA III and other issues related to the proposal.

The proposal for the IPA III program aims to distribute 14.5 billion euro to Western Balkan countries and Turkey in order “to prepare candidate and potential candidate countries for EU membership and supports them in adopting and implementing the necessary political, institutional, legal, administrative, social and economic reforms,” according to the EU parliament website.

Asen Lazarov, representative of the National Liberal Party (ENF) stated that it will not help the migration situation. According to Lazarov, the issue cannot be solved before “countries solve problems among themselves.”

An informal debate followed where representatives discussed the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by both EU member states and non-EU countries. According to Yordanka Todorova, representative of the Democratic Movement in France, Serbia needs to recognize Kosovo as an independent state in order for Kosovo to regain its stability and be able to apply for an EU membership. Another representative added that this will also help the EU enlargement act.

The next major topic of debate revolved around the immigration problem policy. Representatives discussed the possibility of the EU implementing common external borders for establishing better security and limiting the illegal immigration wave coming from the African countries. According to representatives from the Democratic movement in France, Bulgaria successfully coped with the big immigration wave and regained its stability shortly after.