Bulgaria becomes full-fledged EU member

Bulgaria became a full-fledged EU member on Monday as the flags of Bulgaria and the European Union ( EU) were officially hoisted in front of the Monument of the Unknown Soldiers in a solemn ceremony.

The ceremony was specially held here for celebrating Bulgaria's accession into the European bloc.

"Bulgaria will be a stable, predictable and consistent member of the European Union," President Georgi Purvanov said at the ceremony.

"We are entering the EU with the ambition not to be a consumer, with a desire and striving to contribute to the strengthening of the EU with our stable macroeconomic indicators and dynamic development over the past years and our potential to generate security in a difficult and complex region like the Balkans," he stressed.

"Celebrating today, we realize that EU membership is not a single act but a process that will continue in the coming months and years requiring more efforts to further integrate into the European economic and social model and to raise the living standards of Bulgarians to those of the leading European countries and nations," the President added.

He thanked all Bulgarian governments, parliaments, presidents, representatives of all institutions, state bodies, NGOs and society as a whole for the efforts and the sacrifices made on the road to this country's EU membership.

Parvanov also thanked the European institutions and the institutions of the EU member states for the support which Bulgaria felt at each step in its efforts to gain membership.

Bulgaria's National Assembly Chairman Georgi Pirinski and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev also attended the ceremony.

Among the foreign guests of the ceremony were European Parliament President Josep Borrell Fontelles, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, EU rotating presidency country -- German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Geoffrey Van Orden, Rapporteur for Bulgaria in the European Parliament.

Source: Xinhua