Led by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and his Greek counterpart George Papandreou, the cabinets of the two countries held a historic first joint meeting in Sofia on July 27 2010, adopting a joint declaration on setting up a High-Level Co-operation Council.
 
Before the meeting, Borissov and Papandreou held talks, as did several ministers, including Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov and Greece’s Environment, Energy and Climate Change Minister Tina Birbili and Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov met Greek counterpart Michalis Chrysochoidis.
 
Borissov said that issues discussed included the Bourgas – Alexandroupolis pipeline, about which he said that Greece had shown understanding of Bulgaria’s concerns about the safety of the environment in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Bourgas. Papandreou said that like Bulgaria, Greece also was awaiting the environmental impact assessment of the project.
 
Greece had expressed support for Bulgaria joining the European Union’s Schengen visa zone, Borissov said.
 
Also signed were co-operation agreements on transport, energy production, agriculture, environment, foreign affairs, culture, tourism and labour conditions.
 
According to Bulgarian National Radio, co-operation was reaffirmed also on the management of the waters of the three rivers that Bulgaria, and Greece have in common, the Maritsa, the Struma, and the Mesta. Systems for early warning of high waters related to the energy policies of the two neighbouring countries will be built, Borissov and Papandreou said.
 
The Greek prime minister said that it was important also to see relations between Bulgaria and Greece in the context of the Balkans. Historically, there had been difficult times when the two countries were in opposing camps, which made the progress that the two countries had achieved a very powerful message and a valuable example, and the close relationship had provided stability in the Balkans and in Europe.
 
"Drawing from the example of our two countries, Greece, is carrying out the so-called Agenda 2004 of the Western Balkans - an initiative that is built on the dynamics of the movements of these countries in the EU," local news agency Focus quoted Papandreou as saying.
 
He said that 2010 marks 130 years of diplomatic relations between Greece and Bulgaria, which is the basis for co-operation at all levels.
 
"Today, we give a powerful impetus to our cooperation in many areas," Papandreou said, giving economic and energy co-operation as an example.
 
At their meeting, Tsvetanov and Chrysochoidis expressed their satisfaction with the intensive contacts on operational and expert level – parallel investigations, talks on concrete cases and joint efforts in the fight against illegal migration and smuggling.
 
Tsvetanov and Chrysochoidis also discussed the possibility of more active co-operation in the field of protection of cultural heritage, strengthening of cross-border police co-operation through modern Schengen instruments, ways of boosting the effectiveness of the operational co-operation through joint operations, real-time information exchange, as well as the use of the joint contact centre in Promachonas.