Bulgaria's parliament unanimously ratified the Croatia-EU Treaty of Accession at its plenary session on Friday, with all 181 members of parliament, who attended the session, voting for the ratification of the document.
In attendance was also Croatian Parliament Speaker Boris Sprem.
Addressing the session, the Bulgarian National Assembly's Speaker, Tsetska Tsacheva, Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov and leaders of parliamentary parties, extended messages of support to Croatia and to western Balkan countries' EU membership bid.
"Bulgaria is among the first countries to ratify Croatia's EU accession treaty. This is not a formal act of the National Assembly, this is also an act of sending a message of support to the entire Balkan region's integration in Europe," Tsacheva said opening today's session.
Calling for the ratification of the agreement, Minister Mladenov said "I am calling on you to ratify Croatia's accession treaty. Croatia has undergone a difficult path from submitting the membership application to the signing of the Accession Treaty."
During that period Croatia has made impressive progress, he added.
"Welcome to the EU, Croatian friends," Mladenov said.
Croatian Parliament Speaker Sprem thanked Bulgaria for its support to Croatia and the region in the past 20 years.
"You were among the first countries to recognise Croatia's independence and the independence of other republics in the former Yugoslavia. You were one of the initiators of the South East European Cooperation Process. You were among the first to ratify the protocol on Croatia's accession to NATO," the Croatian parliament head said.
He added that he was happy and proud of being present at the ratification adding that this was the first country in which he attended the ceremony of ratifying the Croatia-EU treaty.
Croatia and the EU signed the accession treaty in Brussels on 9 December 2011, and on 22 January the Croatians voted for the country's EU membership at a referendum. Since then a total of four countries have ratified the document.
Slovakia was the first to do that on 1 February. Hungary followed with the ratification on 13 February and Italy's lower house did it on 15 February.
"The Croatian citizens and government are aware of problems which the EU is facing now. We, however, believe that we also can contribute to their solution. We could not circumvent problems even if we had decided to remain outside the Union. We believe that in the current globalised world it is better to immediately start resolving the problems rather than pushing them under the carpet," Sprem said, underlining that Croatia would keep implementing reforms in order improve the living standards of its citizens in all fields.
After the ceremony in the parliament, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev is due to receive the Croatian official.
