2 Written explanations of Kristian VIGENIN

The Bulgarian Socialist delegation firmly believes that supporting Ukraine during this critical time is essential, but our focus should be on humanitarian and economic assistance, not military intervention. Providing food, medical supplies, housing, and financial support can help the Ukrainian people rebuild their lives and economy without escalating violence. Our priority should be helping civilians cope with the devastating impacts of war – ensuring they have access to essential services like healthcare, education, and infrastructure development.We cannot support, however, spending more money for military purposes, especially when it is not entirely clear where the money will come from and in what time frame. Military aid risks prolonging the conflict and contributing to further loss of life. Instead, we should push for diplomatic solutions and peaceful negotiations to bring an end to the war. By focusing on humanitarian relief and economic recovery, we can support Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence while promoting peace and stability in the region. Our resources should be directed toward rebuilding a future for Ukraine, not fuelling further destruction.Therefore, we could not support the proposed regulation in its entirety and we voted to abstain.

The Bulgarian S&D delegation, while recognising the need of full support to Ukraine, still has serious concerns about some provisions in this resolution that, in our view, threaten the prospects for peace and risk further military escalation and destabilisation with global implications.The call to grant Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles against targets within Russia, as well as to provide such weapons would escalate the conflict and potentially expand the war.The resolution also calls for NATO allies to collectively and individually commit no less than 0.25 % of their GDP annually to military support for Ukraine. That is neither realistic nor sustainable and goes well beyond the EP responsibilities, interfering with the sovereign rights of Member States to define their financial, foreign and defence policy, especially on such sensitive issue.Those key votes for our delegation have been lost, so we could not support the proposed motion for a resolution and voted against it as a whole.