"Welcome to Europe, which has always been your home," European Parliament President Josep Borrell Fontelles said on Monday evening, addressing all Bulgarians before the beginning of a New Year's concert mottoed "Bulgaria Salutes Europe" at Sofia's National Palace of Culture.

Even the biggest and the strongest EU members are not big and strong enough to cope with the problems of the global world, "that is why we should be together and united by the values we share," Borrell said on the day of Bulgaria's formal accession into the European Union.

"All Bulgarians will be citizens of Europe, including the Bulgarian nurses convicted in Libya," he said.

Addressing the spectators too, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said: "We are celebrating something much more than the New Year. We are celebrating a new era which will be a European era for Bulgaria and for all Bulgarians."

"You have our full support, the full European solidarity, you are not alone, the EU is with you," Rehn said, mentioning the Bulgarian nurses accused of HIV-spreading in Libya.

"The date of Bulgaria's and Romania's accession to the EU -- January 1, 2007, marked a new step towards overcoming the division of Europe," current EU rotating presidency country Germany 's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also stated before the beginning of the concert.

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev stressed that " Bulgaria joins the EU with hopes to make it still more consolidated, strong, flexible and successful in the 21st century. "

According to him, the country's formal membership of the EU will not automatically solve all problems of the Bulgarian society but it gives great chances to each Bulgarian, to the Bulgarian economy, business and institutions to modernize the country still more successfully.

The program of the concert included popular pieces from all EU member countries.

Source: Xinhua