Discussion at BCCI of the priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU

“The Bulgarian Presidency will be held entirely in Bulgarian. We want to emphasize the role of the Cyrillic and our contribution to the development of Europe”, said the Minister for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU 2018 Lilyana Pavlova during a broad discussion of our country’s priorities for the first six months of next year, organized by the EU Club at the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“We are glad that our Presidency will be open to the citizens because we all want our country to do well. The key topics for us and for the business will be the talks on the single European market, cohesion policy and the future of labour in a united Europe”, the President of BCCI Tsvetan Simeonov said at the special meeting of the EU Club.

The Minister for the Bulgarian Presidency said that our country is taking over the leadership of the Council of the EU in a period of many “challenges” facing Europe, but it will cope with the role of being a responsible and balanced leader that will also lead the great debate on the future of Europe. She presented all the priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency and aspects of its preparation during the session at the Chamber.

Assoc. Prof. Antoniy Galabov, a lecturer at New Bulgarian University, analysed Bulgaria’s 10-year EU membership and the achievements during that period. He and Prof. Dr. Ingrid Shikova, President of the EU Club at BCCI, noted that only 30 years ago, nobody imagined that Bulgaria would stand at the negotiation table with countries such as Germany and France and discuss with them the common European policies in the field of security, financial and economic stability.