To:
President of the European Parliament, Mr. Martin Schulz
President of the European Commission, Mr. José Manuel Barroso
Chairman, EPP, Mr. Joseph Daul
President, PASD, Mr. Hannes Swoboda
President, ALDE, Mr. Guy Verhofstadt
CoPresident,
The Greens EFA,
Ms. Rebecca Harms
CoPresident,
The Greens EFA,
Mr. Daniel CohnBendit
Chairman, ECR, Mr. Martin Callanan
President, GUE/NGL, Ms. Gabi Zimmer
President, PES, Mr. Sergei Stanishev
Dear Messrs Presidents, Ladies and Gentlemen,
With this
DECLARATION
We would like to direct your attention toward a violation of the academic freedom and the rule of law in Bulgaria. Only two days after we, the students, publicly declared our civil disobedience in the form of permanent and effective occupation of the Rectorate building in our University, in expression of our despair from the abundance of corruption, the lack of morality in politics and the nebulous and questionable rule of law in Bulgaria, there was a shocking act of physical violence toward our active citizenship.
This act of violence took form in the attempt at unlawful ending of our occupation with the help and under the direct supervision of Mr. Boris Tsvetkov MP in Bulgaria’s National Assembly from the quota of the Bulgarian Socialists Party in the parliamentary group of the Coalition for Bulgaria, member of the Party of European Socialists.
In violation of the access control regimen of the University, established under the declared rules of occupation, Mr. Boris Tsvetkov, along with people, believed to be supporters of the xenophobic and racist party Ataka (Attack) and a TV crew from the Ataka owned TV station Alfa, threatened with violence, pressured members of the occupying students to leave, rushed through the gates to the courtyard and immediately tried to violently break into Sofia University’s Rectorate building itself.
The people participating in these actions have violated the University’s autonomy, as well as our right of peaceful protest and tried to arbitrary take away through violence the legal powers of the Rector and the Academic Council, who alone have the right to make the decision to suspend our occupation.
We believe it is unacceptable and immoral to perform such attacks on European values and human rights, as described in the ECHR.
We expect a reaction from all parliamentary groups in the European parliament, the European Commission, Council of the European Union and all of the institutions, dedicated to protection of the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the European Union. We appeal to all organizations in the sphere of academic education and all of the universities within the European Union to condemn this act of unprovoked violence toward the freedom of thought, right of peaceful protest and right of academic autonomy and selfgovernance.
We would like to remind, that under Bulgarian law, even the investigative bodies of the executive branch of government do not posses the right to violate the access control regimen in an university, without the explicit written permission of its Academic Council or Rector, unless there is a serious crime taking place at the time of their entry.
We appeal to the MEP’s of the parliamentary groups in the European Parliament and ask them to condemn the actions of the bulgarian MP Mr. Boris Tsvetkov, member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, that took place on the 27th of October 2013. We believe that his actions were most probably based on a decision, taken by members of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, and with the complete understanding that his actions violate our civil rights to the same Party’s benefit.
We believe that no citizen of the European Union has the right to perform such immoral and unlawful acts, especially if this citizen is in public service, as Mr. Boris Tsvetkov.
We firmly insist that the Party of European Socialists publicly dissociate itself from such acts.
As proof, we will attach hyperlinks to the relevant video materials, taken by journalists present during this unwarranted act of violence toward peacefully protesting bulgarian citizens.
With respect,
The Students, occupying the Rectorate of Sofia University “St. Clement of Ohrid”.
