MURNAGHAN 21.04.13: Konstantin Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s Ambassador to the UK

SPEAKERS:

DM: Dermot Murgnahan

KD: Konstantin Dimitrov  

DM: Now, UKIP says there will be an influx of Bulgarian immigrants when rules are relaxed next year. So are they right? I’m joined now by Bulgaria’s ambassador to the UK, Konstantin Dimitrov. Very good morning to you, Mr Ambassador.  

KD: Good morning to you and your viewers.

DM: Thank you very much. What do you feel about, I suppose, the tone of the debates about Bulgarian immigration to the UK and to other EU member states. Do you believe there is an element of frenzy, almost hysteria about it in the UK?  

KD: Well, there is an element of hostility that’s found now by certain political quarters and certain media. It’s not the reflection of the prevailing mood of the British people towards the Bulgarian people but it’s very disappointing and it’s very discriminatory in certain aspects. We are racked firmly, politely, but very strongly against these assertions and the atmosphere created by this propaganda. DM: Okay, propaganda. You go that far?  

KD: That’s right because there are, for example, pre-election leaflets county X, that the Bulgarians will be a threat. I mark the word; a threat to the social system of the United Kingdom. This is absolutely unacceptable in a European country like the United Kingdom.  

DM: So what can Bulgaria do about that? I mean, there are formal EU channels, there are rules.

KD: Happily, this is not the position of your government. We appreciate the fact that they will live up to their obligations to remove the outstanding restrictions to the access of our compatriots to the labour markets of the United Kingdom. Because inter alia, our co-citizens who are not a threat to your social system, they are predominantly aged between 18 and 35. They don’t have a family, or at least they don’t have dependent children. They are medium level attainment of education and that is their status, or highly qualified workers and they represent but only 0.1%. I stress 0.1% of the labour force in the UK.  

DM: And of course, they’re highly mobile. I mean, they can go back or go onto other EU countries.  

KD: Exactly. That’s the truth and most of those who wanted to work here in the UK have already done so because after the year 2007, we enjoy Visa free travel and the right to work under certain conditions so no impediments have been registered to the possibility of most Bulgarians who already work in the United Kingdom, of course, legally.  

DM: And what, Mr Ambassador, what are your estimates on those figures, the Bulgarians who have already come here to work under the existing rules and those; this is the hard question, of course, the difficult one to get right, the numbers that you think would come here after 2014?

KD: Well, no forecast is based on any scientific basis, therefore, we refrain ourselves from forecasts but thereabouts, as I said, most of them have already come. Second point, now there is a removal of the restrictions to the labour market access not only with regards to the UK but to eight leading European nations the same time, including France, Germany and the Benelux countries which are traditionally much more preferred destinations for Bulgarians wanting to work in comparison to the United Kingdom.  

DM: I mean, you mentioned the attitude of the UK government and you were saying it is not buying into the propaganda. Yet, they are talking about; this might lead you to following EU channels; they are talking about restricting access to rights under social services. So the national health service, rights to council housing, rights to benefits. What would you do if those, if laws are brought in to restrict specifically Bulgarians and Romanians from those?

KD: If these measures concern specifically Bulgarians, we will react quite categorically against it. That would be utterly in controversion to the European Union rules and regulations. But we think the UK will do this in accordance with the appropriate consultation and negotiation channels of the European Union in the format of 27. And we don’t think that this has anything to do with the restrictions to the labour market. So I would invite everyone to distinguish the issue of the access to the labour market, which means for people whose labour is in demand to be able to work in the UK from the issue of the so-called ‘misuse’ to your social benefit system, where the Bulgarians do not belong to the first top 20 countries whose citizens use your social benefits in any of the categories of that welfare system.  

DM: Well, would you be willing to put this; I talked about it in the introduction, the UK Independence Party. Would you be interested; I don’t know if you have; have you put these points to their leader, Nigel Farage?

KD: Yes, that’s right and he usually is very feeble in presenting solid arguments, to put it mildly. He prefers to indulge in a propaganda which deviates markedly from the essence of the debate.  

DM: Okay, and do you think; you talk about propaganda and you’ve said it twice now. Does it verge into racism and the Bulgarians, the Romanians have been singled out? The European Union is a large union.

KD: Strictly...  

DM: Well, we don't hear it in this country. We don’t hear it about French people or Germans that want to come and work here with the same rights.  

KD: Because I am a person of precision, it’s not exactly racist because the Bulgarians have belonged to Europe for centuries. They belong to the inter-European race to which most of the British people, indeed the Europeans, belong but we talk about discrimination, about scape-goating a tiny nation of only seven million people, at least half of whom are retired or near retirement age, and of course, who want to create the conditions for retaining their fellow countrymen inside the country. For example, we organise job fairs for all those highly qualified students and post graduates all over Europe and the United States to come to Bulgaria and take up positions in the enlarging private sector.

DM: And is that a message you send, presumably, out to UK citizens as well? me to Bulgaria?  

KD: That's right. That's the reason why we have a very effective bilateral relationship in areas of investment and security, because Bulgaria is the right place to invest with a very low level of taxation; only 10%. A very good investment climate, and I think that the movement of British investments will couple the movement of holidaymakers up 3,000 a year going to have their summer and winter holidays in my beautiful country.  

DM: And buying properties there as well? That's a nice way of turning the table.

KD: That's right. DM: Mr Dimitrov, thank you very much indeed.  

KD: Thank you.

DM: The Bulgarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom. We're all welcome there.     

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