site.btaBTA Hosts Exhibition Tracing Bulgaria and Romania's Joint Progress Towards and In the EU

The national news agencies of Bulgaria and Romania, BTA and AGERPRES, Wednesday opened a joint exhibition at BTA to mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighbourliness between the two countries and the 15th anniversary of their EU accession. The two neighbouring countries' joint progress towards and in the European family is traced by 30 photographs arranged on 15 panels.

The event was attended by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, AGERPRES Director General Claudia-Victoria Nicolae, Romanian Ambassador Brandusa Ioana Predescu, representatives of Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry, students of Romanian Language and Literature at Sofia University, and students from Sofia's Mihai Eminescu Secondary School, among others.

Valchev said: "Bulgaria and Romania are extremely close to each other. Our common border is over 600 km long, although there are just two bridges over the Danube. This exhibition could give the wrong impression that our relations date from 30 years ago. The truth is that the people who lived in our lands have been connected since the time of the Dacians and the Thracians, who were neighbours. In the Middle Ages, we had many impressive things in common. In May 2022, the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized a Bulgarian queen, wife of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander and mother of his four children, as a Romanian saint, St Teofana."

"Another name which connects us is Gregory Tsamblak (c. 1365-1420), one of the most important Bulgarian medieval writers, who became head of the Church of Moldavia and Wallachia and spread the Bulgarian language in those lands. He spread it so much that Old Bulgarian, in the form of Church Slavonic,  was used by the Romanian Orthodox Church until the early 20th century," BTA's Director General also said.

He added: "I would like to use this meeting and this exhibition as an opportunity to send a clear message, which I am certain all Bulgarians and Romanians share. Seeing that the EU lumps Bulgaria and Romania together, I say: Remove the border between us immediately. (...) Bulgaria and Romania should join Schengen immediately because this millennium-long common history proves that we have long been as one."

AGERPRES Director General Claudia Nicolae thanked Valchev for hosting the event a day before Romania's National Day. She brought two symbolic gifts, which she said were very representative of Romania: a CD of the Madrigal Chamber Choir and another one of pop rock singer, composer and actress Laura Stoica, who is no longer among us. "I remember her since I was a child and I learned that Mr Valchev also knew her," Nicolae said.

She added: "The physical borders between the two countries may no longer exist in the future. And we know from history that these borders practically do not exist between the two peoples."