The Bulgarian foreign policy: What needs to be done?

The debates in Bulgaria about the tendency of ”multi-speed Europe” reveal ideas that are clearly defined

The founder of the blog ”Bridge of Friendship” – Vladimir Mitev, made a presentation on 29 May 2017 inside the Romanian parliament building about the discussions in the Bulgarian foreign policy community about “multi-speed Europe” and the necessary answer of Sofia. The presentation divided the experts in two groups – the young and the elder. The young want Bulgaria to avoid its status of a periphery and claim it should join the different integrationist circles of the EU, such as Eurozone, banking union, Schengen, and so on. The elder want a greater foreign policy activity in the regions where Bulgaria has traditional interests – the Western Balkans and the Black Sea, so that it could give added value to the EU there. The presentation also put an emphasis upon the idea for the creation of an European macroregion for the Black Sea and for development of an Euopean strategy for it, so that the tensions in the Black Sea region are replaced with a greater regional cooperation.

The ideas from the presentation are developed in a publication now, which can be downloaded here.

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About Author

Vladimir Mitev

Vladimir Mitev is a Bulgarian Romanian-speaking journalist. He has interacted with many Bulgarian and Romanian media outlets, including Bulgarian National Radio, Mediapool, all major Bulgarian television stations, Darik Radio, and more (Bulgaria); Radio Romania, The Liberal Community 1848, all the major Romanian television stations; DoR; Libertatea; PressHub; and others (Romania); The Analysis, Acorn Radio (USA); Open Democracy (UK); voxEurop (France); the Observatory for the Balkans and the Caucasus; The Other News (Italy); The Institute for Central Europe (Poland); Argument (Czechia); Merce (Hungary); Bilten (Croatia); and Agora (the Republic of Moldova).
He promotes the idea of non-hegemonic, mutually empowering interactions in Central and Southeastern Europe that could contribute to the formation of a dynamic regional identity and connect citizens to the global community.

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