“Bulgaria is very different from back in 2001 and I doubt someone would argue that – we weren’t members of NATO, we were far from the European Union, reforms had just begun their initial stages,” said the minister of national administration and administrative reforms Nikolai Vasilev.

“I remembered a fragment of the speech of Simeon last night – he said that the doors of the European Union are not very open for new countries now. If Bulgaria didn’t take the last train for this decade, our membership could’ve been delayed for a long time. That happened to several countries in the Western Balkans, even though some of them are wealthier than us”, added Vasilev.

“The words of Simeon Sax Coburg Gotha from 2001 are true for a long period of time. Maybe they will be still true after 20 years, because democracy will develop and problems will be solved, but some of them will stay”, said he.