Ambassador Campagnola: Joining EU, Bulgaria Returned to Large European Family to Which It Always Belonged
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Tuesday 9 January 2007
Translations: български
Bulgaria’s membership of the EU is a return to the large European family to which it has always belonged, Italian Ambassador Giovan Battista Campagnola told BTA in an interview. He was glad his first interview this year was with BTA and about Bulgaria’s entry into the EU. He said Bulgaria’s EU membership was the main commitment during his diplomatic mission to Bulgaria, so he was greatly satisfied to see it happen. Thus his mission provided him with what he considered the best experience of his career, which gave him emotional motivation.

Ambassador Campagnola said Bulgaria joined the EU at a time when Italy displayed what he considered very positive legislative conduct regarding the liberalization of the labour market. Interior Minister Giuliano Amato, who visited Sofia in December, left a preliminary impression of decisions which both the ambassador and most Bulgarian media found particularly liberal. Italy attaches a great importance to immigration, especially illegal immigration, and the public is very sensitive to it. That is why Ambassador Campagnola was pleased that with few exceptions in the press, the opening of the labour market to the Bulgarians did not prompt a strong reaction.

On the other hand, Bulgarian immigration to Italy has never been of considerable proportions. Ambassador Campagnola takes the Italian government’s decision to limit the transition period to one year as yet another sign of Rome’s attitude to Bulgaria. He especially mentioned the simplified procedure of issuing work permits to those categories of workers who still need them.

Asked about the areas in which Bulgarian-Italian relations can be expected to further develop most, Ambassador Campagnola promptly mentioned education and culture. He said 13,000 school and university students in Bulgaria were studying Italian in 54 educational establishments with 256 teachers - numbers he finds impressive.

Ambassador Campagnola believes that after Bulgaria’s accession, Italian will become the language of business, not just of intellectuals and literature, because 1,300 Italian companies are operating in Bulgaria. Two-way trade is estimated at 3,000 million euro a year, Italy is the biggest importer of Bulgarian goods, and bilateral trade is very well balanced.

The Italian ambassador said he was very glad that Prime Minister Romano Prodi would arrive in Bulgaria on January 17 and congratulate it on its entry into the EU. This will be one of the first visits to Bulgaria by a European prime minister and it will send a clear signal of Italy’s attention to Bulgaria and the entire Balkan region, Ambassador Campagnola said. Italy is convinced that the Western Balkans are part of the heart of Europe and they need a European perspective.

Author: Zlatna Kostova of BTA

Giovan Battista Campagnola was born in Rome. He studied political science at the University of Rome and started his diplomatic career in 1982. He is Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In 2006 Campagnola was awarded an Honorary Doctor’s degree of New Bulgarian University.

He is guest lecturer at the University of Miami and the International University of Florida on transatlantic matters and Italian-American relations in the United States.

Ambassador Campagnola began his mission in Bulgaria in 2003 after missions to Belgium, the US and Latin America.


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