site.btaUPDATED Future of European Union in Focus of BTA-hosted Conference in Bosilegrad

The future of the European Union is in the focus of a conference in Bosilegrad, Serbia. It is the twenty-third event organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) as part of its EU-backed Bulgarian Voices for Europe initiative.

The conference is taking place at the BTA National Press Club in Bosilegrad.

The event is part of the debates of the Conference on the Future of Europe, and with its initiative BTA seeks to gather more ideas, opinions and expectations about what the European Union will be like in 2050 - what its role should be, what leaders it needs to meet the challenges of today.

The European integration of the Western Balkans is also discussed in Bosilegrad.

"The place of Serbia and all the countries of the Western Balkans is in the European Union as soon as possible. But European integration is a two-way street. The candidate country must overcome the inertia of Yugoslavia's past and be ready for historical reconciliation to take place,"  MEP Andrey Kovachev, who is among the participants in the discussion, told BTA.

The conference was opened by Vice President Iliana Iotova, MEP Andrey Kovachev, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and Dimitar Vassilev, a diplomat at the Bulgarian Embassy in Belgrade.

Vice President Iotova said that today Europe needs serious reforms, new energy, and strength to be attractive for all its citizens and future member states. According to her, the Bosilegrad region needs more investments to motivate people to stay there. “We promised to continue working with the Serbian side for the protection of all rights of the Bulgarians in Serbia,” she added.

Iotova emphasized that BTA’s press club in Bosilegrad is not merely a place for reporting news but has also become a natural place for meetings and communication.

Even though the conference for the future of Europe has ended, the most important thing remains: European citizens’ propositions to be translated into European policies, she also said.

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said at the opening of the conference that Europe’s future "is for all territories on the European continent to be on an equal footing in the European Union". "It seems to me that the approach taken in the enlargement of the European Union - to negotiate individual chapters at different speeds, with different countries - is narrow-minded," he added. He believes that the Western Balkans should start negotiations and earn quick accession to the EU.

MEP Andrey Kovachev said that there must be a European future "as soon as possible" for all the countries of the Western Balkans. "European integration is a two-way street, and the efforts that the member states must make must be not only in words but also in deeds.“ Kovachev stressed the need for active support by Bulgaria for its historical communities abroad, including financial support for their development, and mentioned as an example Viktor Orban for investing EUR 350 million in the Hungarian communities outside Hungary since 2016. He added that it is important for the Eastern partnership countries - Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova - to have clear European perspectives as well. He further spoke in favour of revisions in the law to streamline and step up the procedure for awarding Bulgarian citizenship to members of the ethnic Bulgarian communities abroad.

Kovachev argued that Serbia's "straddle" [between the EU and Russia] is bad for the entire region. "Where are they: are they with Lavrov, are they looking to him for help, for a union there or are their hearts and souls with Europe, with our European family," Kovachev asked. “Those who are in this hall know very well what I am talking about and feel very clearly this pressure on their shoulders, the negative pressure that the state puts on them - on historical topics, the reluctance to celebrate historical dates, to worship the victims they've been in the past,” Kovachev said. ”Our history is what it is, we must know it and never repeat the horrors of the past, and not falsify it and infect the younger generations with hatred,” said the MEP.

This is the third event organized by BTA outside the country. Such a meeting was held on April 19 in Taraclia, Moldova, and on May 27 in Skopje, North Macedonia.