Bulgarian-Romanian Interpersonal Relations

A pillar page

Description

Bulgarian-Romanian interpersonal relations remain a striking mismatch: two peoples who share centuries of Danube-border history, near-identical festive traditions and a small but active minority community (about 6,000 Romanians declaring Bulgarian ethnicity) still describe themselves, in the site’s own recurring phrase, as neighbours who “don’t know each other very well.” The coverage shows this gap narrowing mainly through deliberate, small-scale civic work rather than top-down policy — twin-city festivals between Ruse and Giurgiu, grassroots “bridge of friendship” initiatives, diaspora cultural projects in Banat and Teleorman, and citizen and journalist exchange — even as full Schengen accession in 2025 removed the last physical checkpoints between the two countries. The dominant argument running through the archive, made most explicitly by the site’s own founder, is that institutional and trade ties have outpaced the interpersonal trust and day-to-day contact needed to sustain them, leaving ordinary citizens — not diplomats — as the people who must now do the work of actually crossing the newly open border.

The “Bridge of Friendship” Concept & Citizen-Driven Cooperation

The Trump 2.0 times as seen from a Bulgarian-Romanian perspective: while borders and divisions in the West are rising, in the EU’s Southeast the logic of the center is being affirmed

Vladimir Mitev, 7 February 2025

In this editorial, Vladimir Mitev contrasts rising border controls and political polarization in the Trump-era West with what he calls the opposite trend in Bulgaria and Romania, pointing to their 2023 Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership, full Schengen accession in early 2025, and plans for a new bridge near Ruse and Giurgiu to supplement the existing Friendship Bridge. He argues the two countries are converging on ‘a logic of the centre’ in domestic politics, with both governments seeking figures who bridge internal divisions, and credits the war in Ukraine as the catalyst that pushed Sofia and Bucharest to deepen their bilateral relationship.

The Bulgarian-Romanian border has fallen. More than ever, the future of Romanian-Bulgarian relations depends on the citizens of both countries

Vladimir Mitev, 28 December 2024

Marking the December 12, 2024 decision granting Bulgaria and Romania full Schengen membership, Mitev welcomes concrete gains—no more truck-driver delays, equal investor treatment, and a Ruse-Bucharest trip cut to ‘a little more than an hour’—but insists the institutional change is only half the story. His central argument is that citizens themselves must now ‘practice crossing the border,’ travel more between the two countries, and build interpersonal and virtual ties, since without that popular initiative the removal of checkpoints will not translate into the deeper ‘social capital’ the region needs to overcome its peripheral status in the EU.

Desecuritisation and citizen empowerment is the future of the Bulgarian-Romanian border

Vladimir Mitev, 22 December 2024

This is a transcript of Vladimir Mitev’s remarks on a panel about Southeastern European borders at the Second Lublin Eastern European Forum, held November 19, 2024. Mitev argues the Bulgarian-Romanian border remains structurally ‘thick’—only two bridges span a 609-km frontier, and the two states have not settled their Danube border demarcation since 1908—despite over two million Romanian tourist visits to Bulgaria in 2023. His core claim is that the war in Ukraine has opened space for change, but real, lasting desecuritisation requires grassroots citizen and civil-society involvement, not just elite security partnerships, to build the interpersonal trust needed to move the relationship forward.

The Bridge of Friendship – an inspirational platform for Bulgarians and Romanians

Hristiana Tasseva, 14 October 2024

In a Radio Darik interview, blog founder Vladimir Mitev explains the nine-year mission of “The Bridge of Friendship” (published in ten languages) to build a shared space between Bulgarian and Romanian audiences beyond diplomatic and infrastructure news. He argues that citizens on both sides of the Danube can construct more complex, non-hegemonic identities by learning from each other’s habits — Bulgarians from Romania’s cultural investment, Romanians from Bulgarian pragmatic “ambiguity” — and floats the idea that a similar platform could later help bridge Bulgarian-Macedonian relations. This is essentially the blog’s own self-explanatory, programmatic interview.

Bulgarian-Romanian relations reveal their potential when there is trust between the participants

Monica Varbanova, 12 October 2024

In this Capital newspaper interview, journalist Monica Varbanova questions Vladimir Mitev about the state of Bulgarian-Romanian ties following the 2023 strategic partnership signed by presidents Rumen Radev and Klaus Iohannis. Mitev argues that without accumulated mutual trust, cooperation stays dependent on outside pressure (from the EU/NATO) rather than organic momentum, citing the summer 2024 dispute over Danube bridge renovation and disinfection fees and the stalled Ruse-Giurgiu ferry project as evidence, and calls for “neutral spaces” where distrust and stereotypes (like unfounded Romanian fears of car theft in Bulgaria) can be worked through.

A presentation about the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” was made before young people in the Romanian town of Târgoviște

Vladimir Mitev, 22 September 2024

Vladimir Mitev reports on his own presentation of the Bridge of Friendship blog at the Autumn School of Journalism “Apollo 20.50” in Târgoviște (September 17-21, 2024), organized by NGO Balkan Development Support with Valahia University and the University of Novi Sad, gathering students from Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Ethiopia. He argues that Bulgarians and Romanians suffer from mutually limited curiosity and trust due to nationally-centered media, and calls on young journalists to “de-hegemonise” themselves and build a more dynamic, regional identity rather than zero-sum national ones.

In Romania you can create a critical mass and even win elections as an independent candidate

Martina Gancheva, 15 June 2024

In a BTA news agency interview with Martina Gancheva, Vladimir Mitev analyzes Romania’s June 9, 2024 local and European elections, highlighting independent candidates like MEP Nicolae Ștefănuță and Ploiești mayor Mihai Polițeanu as instructive precedents Bulgaria could study, and noting PSD’s win (36-37%) over PNL (29-31%) strengthened Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu’s position ahead of presidential elections, while AUR (around 10%) suffered internal splits. Mitev closes by endorsing Ambassador Radko Vlaykov’s claim that political relations between Bulgaria and Romania are at their best, while stressing that interpersonal trust between the two peoples still lags behind.

Bulgaria and Romania need more people and organisations that are bridges of friendship

Vladimir Mitev, 31 January 2024

In an interview for Tele Moldova Plus conducted by Emil Stanciu of the Union of Professional Journalists of Romania, Vladimir Mitev, founder of The Bridge of Friendship blog, argues that despite generally positive official Bulgarian-Romanian relations, there remains ‘not enough knowledge and trust between peoples,’ and that more individuals, organizations and communities are needed to act as people-to-people bridges. He also discusses his dual role as a Radio Bulgaria/Radio Romania correspondent, debunks rumors of an imminent Ruse-Bucharest high-speed train, and describes his separate ‘Persian Bridge of Friendship’ project, framing his broader philosophy as urging nations to adopt dynamic rather than stereotyped views of each other.

Southeastern Europe’s affirmation: neither technocracy, nor sovereignism, but people’s agency

Vladimir Mitev, 10 October 2023

Mitev argues that Southeastern Europe is trapped between two disempowering poles — EU-aligned technocratic elites and nationalist ‘sovereignists’ (who in Romania oppose Kyiv and Moldova’s president Maia Sandu, and in Bulgaria resist governmental reform) — and that neither leaves ordinary citizens any real agency. As concrete evidence of stalled cross-border potential he cites an €8 billion Bulgarian-Romanian trade relationship still dominated by foreign corporations, an unimplemented 2023 strategic-partnership declaration, only two Danube bridges linking the countries, a border regime essentially unchanged since 1908, and a 20% population decline in northern Bulgarian towns between 2011 and 2021.

The philosophy of change in Bulgarian-Romanian relations: via bridge of friendship towards dynamic identity

Vladimir Mitev, 1 May 2023

Mitev sets out the theoretical framework behind his own project, contrasting ‘static identity’ — where, in his example, publishing once in the socialist-era paper Duma brands someone ‘a communist for life’ — with a ‘dynamic identity’ that lets individuals and societies absorb outside experience and move past national trauma. He presents the ‘bridge of friendship,’ embodied by his blog’s roughly 1,500 articles across ten languages and the Cross-Border Talks podcast (developed with Polish and Czech journalists), as the grassroots mechanism for this kind of change, extending the same logic to a parallel ‘Persian Bridge of Friendship’ engaging Iranian culture.

The Bridge of Friendship as an approach in international relations

Vladimir Mitev, 4 February 2023

Vladimir Mitev, in conversation with Cosmin Crețu (a Giurgiu theater manager), lays out the blog’s own theoretical framework: “Bridge of Friendship” as a method for building trust between peripheral, mutually distrustful communities through trusted individuals who work grassroots cultural and personal channels rather than waiting on state bureaucracy. Crețu illustrates the idea with free theater performances and international festival exchanges he organized in Giurgiu, while Mitev argues Ruse and Giurgiu need a shared “dynamic identity” to counter nationalist narratives of separation and to resist depopulation as residents migrate to Sofia and Bucharest instead of investing in the border region. The piece is essentially a manifesto for the blog’s people-to-people approach to Bulgarian-Romanian relations.

How can a Greater Bulgaria-Romania be made without war, hegemony and manipulation?

Vladimir Mitev, 9 October 2022

In this theoretical essay, Vladimir Mitev argues that Bulgaria’s tendency toward regional “hegemony” — visible in assertive cultural moves in North Macedonia, such as naming centers after nationalist historical figures — fails once applied to an EU neighbor like Romania, and that genuine integration instead requires “unlearning hegemony,” i.e., learning not to accumulate power over a neighbor. He proposes that a metaphorical “Greater Bulgaria-Romania” can emerge through dynamic, dialogic identity-formation and citizen-level “friendship bridges” rather than territorial or political domination, pointing to the 1940 Dobrogea border settlement as a precedent for non-confrontational resolution. The essay is explicitly framed as the blog’s own conceptual argument for why interpersonal, citizen-driven ties—not state elites—should drive Bulgarian-Romanian rapprochement.

Bulgaria and Romania Are (Finally) Getting to Know Each Other

Vladimir Mitev, 14 September 2022

Marking fifteen years of joint EU membership, this survey article — drawing on translator Maria Stanimirova-Hazday, historian Stefan Minkov, journalist Vladimir Mitev and digital-bridge entrepreneur Iulia Bahovski — argues Bulgarians and Romanians are only now discovering how much they share, from near-identical festive foods to Romania’s status as Bulgaria’s second-largest trading partner in 2021. It catalogs the practical obstacles that still block deeper contact: no Bulgarian or Romanian cultural center in the other’s capital, a persistent language barrier, and only two bridges spanning 470 km of shared Danube border. The piece functions as a broad state-of-relations essay rather than a single-event story, tying tourism, trade, history and grassroots digital initiatives into one narrative of belated mutual discovery.

Why do Bulgarians and Romanians fear having a dynamic identity between themselves?

Vladimir Mitev, 25 July 2022

In conversation with Vladimir Mitev, David Bisset, director of the Rousse-based child-welfare NGO Equilibrium, argues that Bulgarians and Romanians avoid what Mitev calls a ‘dynamic identity’ — an open, mutually reshaping relationship — because acknowledging shared history and culture would unsettle each nation’s comfortable, static self-image. Bisset offers a concrete illustration: Bulgarians in Rousse avoiding the Romanian-frequented Happy Grill restaurant precisely because it is ‘full of Romanians’, which he reads as evidence that the barrier across the Danube is psychological rather than physical. The article is one of the blog’s own theoretical pieces, using this case to contend that neither EU membership nor geographic proximity substitutes for a deliberate change of attitude at the grassroots level.

The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism can encourage Bulgarian-Romanian interaction

Vladimir Mitev, 10 April 2021

In an interview given to Romania’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Vladimir Mitev argues that the EU’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, rather than being just an external rule-of-law monitor, could become a catalyst for Bulgaria and Romania to develop their own joint initiatives, such as a bilateral ‘mini-Schengen’. He criticizes both countries’ elites for competing with neighbors instead of pursuing common regional strategy, and calls for shared media spaces that would let citizens and elites on both sides of the Danube exchange ideas rather than remain disconnected.

Ronald Young: Passion, networking and moral imperative are the key ingredients to success in cross-border cooperation

Vladimir Mitev, 23 August 2017

Ronald Young, a Scottish former politician and academic turned EU technical-assistance consultant who has spent a decade dividing his time between Sofia and a Carpathian village with his Romanian partner Daniela, argues that top-down EU structural-fund programs and outside consultants routinely fail because they impose generic ‘best practice’ models disconnected from local realities. He contends that genuine Bulgarian-Romanian cross-border cooperation instead requires ‘passion, networking and moral imperative’ among municipalities, NGOs and individuals, and offers first-hand comparative observations — such as Sofia’s far richer gallery scene versus Bucharest’s — drawn from living on both sides of the border.

Media, Mutual Perceptions & Stereotypes

Daniel Tomov: Romania must be of interest at all times, not just when accidents occur in the country

Vladimir Mitev, 16 August 2026

In this interview, Daniel Tomov, a lecturer in practical Romanian at Sofia University ‘St Kliment Ohridski’ and a frequent traveler across Romania, argues that Bulgarian media coverage of the neighboring country is structurally skewed toward disasters and isolated incidents rather than everyday life. He points to Romanians’ comparatively strong engagement with theatre, literature and religious practice as evidence of a rich cultural reality that rarely reaches Bulgarian audiences, and calls for sustained institutional and journalistic attention rather than crisis-driven reporting.

Bulgaria in the eurozone: How Romanians view it and how we can reset our relationship

Vladimir Mitev, 17 March 2026

Mitev uses Bulgaria’s January 2026 entry into the eurozone as a lens on Romanian attitudes toward its southern neighbor, arguing that ordinary Romanians largely welcomed the move while parts of the Romanian elite reacted with thinly veiled envy given Bulgaria’s much lower public debt and rising wages. He traces persistent Romanian skepticism to Cold War-era stereotypes of Bulgarians as pro-Russian, and proposes that grassroots initiatives — such as a nascent Romanian-language club in Ruse — rather than elite diplomacy, offer the more realistic path to resetting mutual perceptions.

Vladimir Mitev: Bulgaria is part of both Western policy towards Ukraine and Western policy towards Russia

Mihai Isac, 26 March 2025

This is a republished interview by Mihai Isac for the Romanian outlet Karadeniz Press with Vladimir Mitev, in which Mitev argues Bulgaria occupies a dual position in Western strategy: despite stereotypes of Bulgarian Russophilia, he claims Bulgaria supplied roughly 40% of Ukraine’s early-war fuel imports, while simultaneously diversifying its own energy supply away from Russia via a Greek gas interconnector and planned Western-sourced nuclear fuel. Mitev frames Bulgarians as instinctively seeking ‘moderation, balance and restraint’ rather than fitting crude pro-Russia/pro-West binaries, and suggests this pragmatic middle position could be a basis for deeper Bulgarian-Romanian coordination on the Western Balkans and Moldova.

We need more links between Bulgarian and Romanian journalists and media in general

Vladimir Mitev, 29 November 2024

In an interview with Romanian journalist Iulia Bahovski (byjulia.ro), Vladimir Mitev discusses Bulgaria’s political instability (seven elections in three years) and argues Romania risks following a similar path of polarization and fragmented parliaments. He pushes back on Romanian perceptions of Bulgaria as Russia-leaning, pointing to its post-2022 energy diversification and NATO/EU integration, and points to Factcheck.bg and Romania’s Veridica as models for anti-disinformation work. His central conclusion is that closer cooperation between Bulgarian and Romanian journalists and media outlets is needed to correct mutual misperceptions.

Why do we Romanians not cooperate with the Bulgarians? We don’t consider each other relevant enough

Ionela Dobos, 4 June 2024

In an interview for Romania’s PressHub, journalist Ionela Dobos asks Vladimir Mitev, author of a Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute study on Romanian-Bulgarian relations, why the two neighbors cooperate so little despite shared history. Mitev attributes this to nation-state-era divisions, national-centric elites who have treated cross-Danube ties as low-stakes since the 1990s, and the absence of cultural institutes (no Romanian Cultural Institute in Sofia, no Bulgarian equivalent in Bucharest), pointing to small minority populations (about 6,000 Bulgarians in Romania) and unresolved issues like Romanian-language schooling requests in Vidin as symptoms, while arguing that grassroots “civic diplomacy” offers more promise than state-level initiatives.

Bulgaria-Romania: neighbors who still don’t know each other very well

Benjamin Ribout, 1 June 2024

In an interview for Le Courrier des Balkans, correspondent Benjamin Ribout asks Ruse-based journalist Vladimir Mitev to explain the paradox of two EU neighbors that trade heavily (rising from 2.8 billion euros in 2010 to 8.5 billion in 2022, with 1.2 million Romanian tourists visiting Bulgaria in 2022) yet remain socially distant, connected by only two Danube bridges over 600+ km of border. Mitev cites mutual stereotypes (Romanians seeing Bulgarians as “potential Russian agents,” some Romanians asserting Latin cultural superiority over Slavic Bulgaria) and elite dysfunction as causes, but credits the 2021-2022 Kiril Petkov government with unblocking projects like the Fast Danube navigability program and gas interconnections, while noting the partial, land-border-excluding 2024 Schengen accession paradoxically tightened bilateral border controls.

Seminar on the impact of gambling funding on journalism and society

Vladimir Mitev, 30 March 2024

This piece reports on a 28 March 2024 seminar at Sofia University’s Faculty of Journalism, co-organized by Assoc. Prof. Zhana Popova and Vladimir Mitev, on how gambling-industry advertising money is compromising editorial independence. It centers on the 2023 crisis at Romania’s investigative outlet Libertatea, where journalists resigned amid perceived advertiser pressure, contrasting it with Romanian outlets like G4 Media that refuse gambling ads on principle, versus what Popova describes as Bulgarian TV’s near-total dependence on gambling and addictive-product commercials. Lawyer Silvia Petkova also spoke on addiction risks, and the panel called for industry self-regulation to protect young and vulnerable viewers.

The Romanian press continues to be unable to find anything in Bulgaria other than ‘eternal Russia’

Vladimir Mitev, 17 December 2023

Mitev criticizes a Spotmedia.ro dispatch from Sofia for reducing Bulgaria to an ‘eternal Russia’ cliché, arguing it ignored substantial 2023 developments such as Lukoil divesting assets under government pressure, the removal of Sofia’s Soviet Army Monument, and Bulgarian military and economic support for Ukraine. He points to the seeming paradox of ‘pro-Russian’ President Rumen Radev backing the anti-Moscow Three Seas Initiative and the pro-Western premiership of Kiril Petkov as evidence that Bulgarian politics is more chameleon-like than Romanian coverage allows, and links the distortion to Romanian sovereigntism’s own unresolved contradictions.

Radio Bulgaria started speaking in Romanian

Vladimir Mitev, 21 October 2022

The article reports that on October 20, 2022, Radio Bulgaria (BNR’s international service) launched a Romanian-language section, becoming its 11th language, staffed by journalist Vladimir Mitev, Romanian journalist Iulia Bahovski, and philologist-editor Alexandru Ionascu. The launch ceremony included remarks from Romania’s ambassador to Bulgaria Brândușa Predescu, Moldova’s ambassador Anatol Cebuc, and BNR Director General Milen Mitev, and was timed to coincide with the countries’ pending Schengen bid, the 30th anniversary of their bilateral cooperation treaty, and 15 years of joint EU membership. The new editorial section covers Bulgarian history, culture, tourism and current affairs aimed at Romanian-speaking audiences, mixing translated BNR content with original material on bilateral relations.

Vladimir Mitev: Bulgarians and Romanians have a lot to discover and learn about each other

Vladimir Mitev, 16 February 2022

In an interview with Eliz Adem for UNA News Bulgaria, Vladimir Mitev, founder of ‘The Bridge of Friendship’ blog, discusses the state of Bulgarian-Romanian relations, pointing out that the two countries have had no formal agreement on their shared Danube border since 1908 and that mutual stereotypes persist — Romanians fearing car theft in Bulgaria, Bulgarians complaining about Romanian traffic enforcement. He also contrasts the two nations’ divergent memory of communism, arguing Romania treats it as an alien imposition while Bulgaria retains comparatively warmer attitudes toward Russia and the USSR, a difference he sees as still shaping each country’s posture toward Moscow and NATO.

Romanian vaccination advances better than the Bulgarian one

Vladimir Mitev, 16 March 2021

In a Bulgarian National Radio interview with Georgi Markov, Vladimir Mitev compares the two countries’ COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, noting Romania’s military-run centers and online registration had reached 1.5 million people with at least one dose, with over 90% of medical staff vaccinated, while Bulgaria lagged behind; he also flags irregularities such as roughly 7,000 Romanians vaccinated out of turn via personal connections, and Romania’s donation of 200,000 AstraZeneca doses to Moldova. The piece is essentially a comparative health-policy commentary rather than a story about interpersonal or cultural ties between the two nations.

In the mirror land

Vladimir Mitev, 20 September 2015

Using Lewis Carroll’s looking-glass as a metaphor, Vladimir Mitev reflects on his own assumption that Romania has stronger ‘statehood’ and less corruption than Bulgaria, an assumption several Romanian interlocutors then overturned — one journalist telling him Bulgarians in fact respect state administration more than Romanians do, another noting greater Bulgarian respect for the elderly. Set against a backdrop of roughly 300,000 annual Bulgarian tourist visits to Romania and €3.5 billion in bilateral trade, the essay concludes that each nation projects onto the other the virtues it feels it lacks, and that genuine mutual understanding requires looking past this mirroring toward shared realities.

Historical & Academic Connections

International symposium in Chirnogi: ‘Saint Sophronius of Vratsa – a bridge between the Romanian and Bulgarian peoples’

Aurelian (Relu) Cotoban, 19 December 2025

The article reports on a November 26, 2025 academic symposium held at the Church of Saint Nicholas in Chirnogi, Romania, examining the legacy of Saint Sophronius of Vratsa — the Bulgarian cleric, diplomat and founder of modern Bulgarian literary culture who ordained priests in Wallachia during his exile. Speakers including Father Kiril Sinev, historian-priest Irinei, Prof. Galina Lecheva and Dr. Valentin Arapu framed Sophronius as a literal historical bridge between the two peoples, and the event closed with the consecration of a carved oak shrine in his honor.

Petar Dobrev: Dobruja is an interesting multicultural region to study

Vladimir Mitev, 21 September 2025

This is an interview with Petar Dobrev, a historian at Sofia University and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, on the sidelines of the September 2025 Sofia conference ‘The Craiova Agreement. Diplomacy instead of violence,’ the first gathering to bring Bulgarian, Romanian and Italian historians together to discuss the 1940 Dobruja settlement openly. Dobrev, himself a native of the region, argues Dobruja has been understudied precisely because the Treaty of Craiova resolved the territorial dispute (unlike other Balkan flashpoints), and he stresses the human cost behind the diplomatic success: the compulsory exchange displaced roughly 350,000 people, including those in mixed marriages who wanted no part of relocation.

Daniel Cain: Romanian and Bulgarian historiography are both mature enough to discuss the Dobruja issue together

Vladimir Mitev, 21 September 2025

A companion interview from the same Sofia conference (‘The Treaty of Craiova. Diplomacy instead of violence,’ September 2025) with Daniel Cain, director of the Institute for Southeast European Studies at the Romanian Academy and head of the Romanian side of the Joint Romanian-Bulgarian History Commission. Cain contends that enough generational distance has passed for both national historiographies to jointly examine the once-taboo Southern Dobruja question (the ‘Quadrilater’ in Romanian historiography), citing roughly 160,000 people displaced in the 1940 population exchange as ‘a tragic story of those times.’ He frames the conference itself as evidence that Romanian and Bulgarian historians now cooperate collegially within a shared European scholarly framework, rather than defending opposing national narratives.

A Romanian donated a plaque with a picture of Kolyo Ficheto to the museum in Dryanovo

Janeta Iordanova, 26 February 2025

The article recounts how Cristian-Mihai Pastrama, a truck driver from Giurgiu, found a bronze plaque (14×16 cm) bearing a Cyrillic inscription to Bulgarian master-builder Kolyo Ficheto and dated 1881 while dumped near a village roughly 25 years ago, and kept it without knowing its significance. Through Ana Tatu, who runs a Facebook page on Giurgiu’s history, and journalist Vladimir Mitev, Pastrama arranged to donate the plaque to the Dryanovo History Museum—Ficheto’s hometown, then marking the 225th anniversary of his birth—where curator Simona Oliverova noted it was larger than a similar plaque already in the collection. The story is presented as a small, citizen-driven act of cross-border cultural repatriation connecting an ordinary Romanian find to Bulgarian heritage.

The importance of Bulgaria in Romanian foreign policy and of Romania in Bulgarian foreign policy is growing

Vladimir Mitev, 8 December 2023

In a Bulgarian National Radio interview with host Georgi Markov, Mitev presents findings from research he prepared for the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute, arguing that the war in Ukraine and joint projects on gas, Danube navigation, and security have pushed Sofia and Bucharest to weigh more heavily in each other’s foreign policy, evidenced by frequent trilateral meetings with Greece’s prime minister. He also cautions that Bulgarians underestimate Romania’s complexity — citing its strong ties to Hungary and a sovereigntist bloc polling around 25% — and closes by calling for more citizen-level ‘bridges of friendship’ to correct such blind spots.

Now online: the study on Romanian foreign policy and Bulgarian-Romanian relations, printed by the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute

Vladimir Mitev, 12 November 2023

The article announces the online publication of ‘Romania’s Foreign Policy in Geopolitical Context and Bulgaria,’ a Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute study co-authored by Dr. Aneta Mihaylova of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Balkan Studies and journalist Vladimir Mitev. Mihaylova traces Romania’s Euro-Atlantic orientation, its interest in Moldova and Ukraine, and its energy and Schengen ambitions, while Mitev frames the bilateral relationship through his ‘dynamic identity’ concept, arguing that grassroots ‘bridges of friendship’ can advance Bulgarian-Romanian cooperation without requiring elites to compromise national interests.

Vessela Tcherneva: Packaging Bulgaria and Romania together is an opportunity, not an inconvenience

Vladimir Mitev, 10 January 2023

Bulgarian foreign-policy analyst Vessela Tcherneva argues that Bulgaria and Romania have wasted three decades of potential cooperation and should instead embrace being treated as a bloc by EU institutions, building not just physical infrastructure but “political, economic and social bridges” that make coordination unavoidable. She contends that real gains require reform-minded governments genuinely committed to EU integration “in practice and not just in words,” and identifies the war in Ukraine, refugee policy and energy security as immediate, logical areas for joint action that could extend into peacetime cooperation. While affirming that citizens matter, she insists states must first build the institutional scaffolding that allows deeper cooperation to happen.

Iulian Mareș: The Balkans do not have a culture of cooperation, but they have a special energy of revival, which we must use

Vladimir Mitev, 25 November 2022

Iulian Mareș, city manager of Fierbinți-Târg and president of the NGO Balkan Development Support, criticizes Romania’s thin diplomatic presence in the Western Balkans (citing a single economic advisor covering four countries, versus Hungary’s two advisors in Montenegro alone) and argues that Romania’s and the EU’s approaches to Moldova have converged, dismissing the nationalist AUR party’s Moldova strategy as electorally “disastrous.” He characterizes the Balkans as lacking a tradition of cooperation but possessing an untapped “energy of revival,” criticizes Serbia’s foreign policy as a weak echo of Yugoslav non-alignment, and advocates deepening Romanian-Bulgarian ties through cross-border “functional zones” of integrated administration. The piece is a regional-diplomacy interview more than a story of interpersonal Bulgarian-Romanian contact.

Pordim, Bulgaria and the Steel King of Romania

Vladimir Mitev, 22 September 2022

Romanian visitor Elvira Bogos recounts her trip to the small Bulgarian town of Pordim, where two house-museums established in 1907 commemorate Romania’s King Carol I and the soldiers of the Grivița assault — Major Gh. Șonțu and Sergeant Grigore Ion Alucăi — who fought there during the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War. The article recovers a concrete, physically preserved episode of shared history: Carol I’s insistence on independent command as the condition for Romanian military help, later rewarded with Romanian independence and Northern Dobruja, and notes that the Romanian state helped restore the monument’s busts in 2016. It is presented as evidence that Bulgarian-Romanian ties rest on a real, visitable historical foundation rather than abstraction.

Petar-Emil Mitev: The foundations for the international sociology of the youth were laid down in Romania and Bulgaria

Vladimir Mitev, 11 February 2021

In an interview conducted by sociologist Svetla Koleva, Professor Petar-Emil Mitev — long-time head of Bulgaria’s Institute for Youth Research — recounts how he and Romanian counterparts Ovidiu Badina and Fred Mahler jointly founded the international sociology of youth as a discipline, holding joint Bulgarian-Romanian seminars along the Danube from 1974 onward and shaping the ISA’s Research Committee 34. He argues this Bulgarian-Romanian academic partnership, forged under socialist-era conditions, gave Eastern European scholars a distinctive empirical edge in studying youth as an emerging social group, a collaboration that continued after 1989 but with diminishing intensity.

Daniel Cain: Among all the peoples of their region, Romanians and Bulgarians are the closest ones

Vladimir Mitev, 2 June 2020

Daniel Cain, a historian at the Romanian Academy’s Institute for Southeastern European Studies and secretary of the Romanian side of the Mixed Romanian-Bulgarian History Commission, argues that Romanians and Bulgarians are the closest peoples in their region, pointing to pre-1878 Bulgarian émigré communities in Brăila (where Bulgarian-language newspapers were printed and the future Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was born) and to a shared anti-Ottoman history. He contends that post-2002 freedom of travel and EU-era cross-border trade and tourism have begun replacing old competitive stereotypes — Bulgarians admiring Romanian anti-corruption drives, Romanians admiring Bulgarian highways — with a more cooperative mutual view.

Border, Mobility & Everyday Cross-Border Life

Why does everyone win from the elimination of land border controls in Southeastern Europe?

Vladimir Mitev, 9 January 2025

Vladimir Mitev lays out a practical case for the January 1, 2025 removal of land-border checks between Bulgaria, Romania and Greece under full Schengen accession, arguing it ends costly truck queues at the border, removes the ‘second-class European’ stigma for citizens of both countries, and makes the region more attractive to investors who previously discounted it for transit delays. He traces the ‘(mini-)Schengen’ idea back to a 2011 proposal by an anonymous Romanian political scientist and situates the reform within the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (IES), noting a six-month transition period during which risk-based checks continue on the Bulgarian-Romanian and Romanian-Hungarian borders.

E.S. Radko Vlaykov: Bulgarian-Romanian relations advance successfully in the domains of security and defense

Răzvan Munteanu, 18 June 2024

In an interview by Romanian journalist Răzvan Munteanu (TV B1/CheckMedia), Bulgaria’s ambassador to Romania Radko Vlaykov calls current bilateral relations “probably the best period” ever, citing Romania’s rank as Bulgaria’s second-largest trading partner, joint NATO Black Sea mine-clearing efforts, and Bulgaria’s favorable treatment as a case study for how Romania treats its Bulgarian minority. He criticizes Austria and the Netherlands for blocking full Schengen land-border accession (arguing it costs Romanian exporters like Dacia 100 euros per car), rejects a bilateral “mini-Schengen” as impractical, and flags Russian hybrid-war disinformation as a shared problem for both countries, noting Bulgaria’s suspended relations with Moscow.

The elimination of border controls in Southeastern Europe would transform the region

Vladimir Mitev, Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat, 10 April 2024

In a Cross-Border Talks conversation, Bulgarian journalist Vladimir Mitev is interviewed by Polish journalist Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat about the campaign to abolish land border controls between Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, following Bulgaria and Romania’s partial (air/sea-only) Schengen accession on 31 March 2024. Mitev lays out the case made by road hauliers (since 97% of Bulgarian trade with the Schengen area moves overland) and by NGOs and academics who see full accession as a matter of regional dignity, against resistance from figures like former Bulgarian PM Nikolay Denkov and EU Commissioner Adina Vălean who question its legality and its effect on Romania’s border with Hungary. He argues the political idea nonetheless retains momentum despite elite skepticism.

So far the European Commission neither supports nor rejects the idea of a Bulgarian-Romanian mini-Schengen

Vladimir Mitev, 4 April 2024

In this transcript of an interview with Bulgarian National Radio host Georgi Markov, journalist Vladimir Mitev reports that the European Commission has taken no clear position on the proposed elimination of land border checks between Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, a ‘mini-Schengen’ idea he traces back to a Romanian political scientist’s 2011 blog post. He notes that while transport businesses actively back the plan, state elites in both countries (including former PM Nikolay Denkov and Commissioner Adina Vălean) have not endorsed it, and points out that Austria’s 2023 concession actually tightened rather than loosened checks. Mitev suggests the very fact that the idea provokes high-level pushback is itself evidence of latent public support.

The Bulgarian-Romanian mini-Schengen area as a project for change in Southeastern Europe

Vladimir Mitev, 19 February 2024

Vladimir Mitev traces the decade-long history of the mini-Schengen proposal, from its origin in a 2011 UNDP commentator’s blog post through advocacy by Romanian governance expert Codru Vrabie and Bulgarian scholar Prof. Vladimir Chukov (who wanted it extended to Greece), to its 2024 revival by Romanian MEPs Dacian Cioloș and Vlad Gheorghe after Austria and the Netherlands blocked full Schengen entry. He weighs this against skepticism from Bulgarian PM Nikolay Denkov (who called it illegal) and Commissioner Adina Vălean, concluding that regardless of legal hurdles the idea functions as a symbol of trust-building and regional identity beyond narrow nationalism.

Daniel Laurer: Border controls between Greece, Bulgaria and Romania can only be eliminated with European coordination

Vladimir Mitev, 2 February 2024

In an interview with Vladimir Mitev, Bulgarian MP Daniel Laurer (founder of ‘We Continue the Change’, former Minister of Innovation and Growth) discusses a joint declaration he signed with Romanian politician Dacian Cioloș and Greek counterparts calling for the elimination of land border controls among the three countries. Laurer argues this is legally feasible now that Bulgaria and Romania have hardened their external border with Turkey, and frames the initiative as a demonstration to Austria that removing internal checks will not increase migration pressure, while noting Greek tourism operators in the north also want an end to discriminatory border delays.

Why there will soon be no direct trains from Otopeni Airport to Ruse

Vladimir Mitev, 11 January 2024

Citing Romanian journalist Vlad Barza (HotNews) and the Pro Infrastructură Association, this piece debunks claims spread by Bulgarian outlets and an anonymous ‘Bulgarians in Romania’ Facebook page that a new high-speed train would soon link Ruse to Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport in 80-90 minutes. It details concrete infrastructural obstacles: the Bucharest-Giurgiu rail line has been out of service for 18 years and remains under repair, Otopeni’s two existing lines have no spare capacity, and historical Bucharest-Ruse travel times (110 minutes pre-2005) make the promised schedule technically implausible, with API calling the story a fabricated ‘railway donut.’

The news of high-speed train Ruse – Bucharest crashed into a dead track

Vladimir Mitev, 11 January 2024

Vladimir Mitev, writing for ‘For the Truth,’ investigates and debunks a viral Facebook claim (again from the anonymous ‘Bulgarians in Romania’ page, uncritically picked up by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency) that a 5-euro high-speed train between Ruse and Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport would launch in March 2024. He finds the plan was only a hypothetical proposal by private Romanian operator Transferoviar Călători, denied informally by the company and unknown to Bulgarian Railways (BDZ); the Bucharest-Giurgiu line has been unusable since the 2005 collapse of the Grădiștea bridge, with a roughly 120-million-euro repair by Austria’s PORR Construct still capping realistic speeds at 100 km/h and journey times near 1.5 hours, following a string of previously missed relaunch dates.

Ana Tatu: Ruse and Giurgiu should have good public transport links

Vladimir Mitev, 12 March 2023

In this interview, Ana Tatu, who runs the “Giurgiu Neoficial” Facebook page, argues that the lack of regular bus lines, convenient train schedules, ferries and cycling infrastructure between Giurgiu and Ruse forces residents without cars to rely on the tolled Danube bridge, making cross-border movement needlessly costly and slow. She contrasts this with French-Belgian border towns where cross-border commuter buses are routine, and frames better transport links as a precondition for tourism and economic development that requires coordinated action by both municipalities. Tatu also describes how her page grew from promoting Giurgiu’s local history into covering shared Bulgarian-Romanian heritage across both cities.

What should Bulgarian drivers pay attention to on Romanian roads?

Vladimir Mitev, 26 May 2022

In this practical interview, Ivan Vasilchin, a Bulgarian-origin translator and legal fixer working across several Romanian counties, warns Bulgarian drivers about concrete pitfalls of Romanian traffic law, from vignette fines triggered by border-queue delays that push a crossing past midnight — he cites a driver fined just six minutes after midnight — to license confiscation for illegal overtaking, use of invalid yellow transit plates, or attempts to switch exit points at the Nădlac border crossing. The piece is written as consumer-facing guidance for the everyday realities of Bulgarians who drive through or reside in Romania, down to Vasilchin’s own contact details for readers who run into trouble.

Rousse and Romania: distant neighbours

Vladimir Mitev, 30 January 2020

The article documents why Ruse and nearby Bucharest, only 75 km apart, remain poorly integrated despite Romania being Bulgaria’s third-largest trade partner (€4.6 billion in 2018): the Danube Bridge of Friendship causes up to two-hour delays and tolls, only one daily train runs, and Ruse high schools teach no Romanian, leaving the city with only a handful of professional translators. Eleonora Ivanova of the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry states that cross-border labor mobility is ‘close to zero’, a pattern illustrated by commuter-accountant Ralitsa Popova, who earns money in Romania but lives and spends in Ruse, while firms like Bella and Nedelya succeed only by building separate Romanian brands rather than direct cross-border trade.

Culture, Arts & Literature Exchange

“Love without words”: The new Bechstein piano in Dve Mogili meets the cello on Valentine’s Day

Vladimir Mitev, David Chifiriuc, 10 February 2026

The article reports on a Valentine’s Day concert on February 13, 2026, at the St. Cyril and St. Methodius community center in Dve Mogili, Bulgaria, where Bucharest-trained cellist Emilia David performed alongside her son, pianist David Chifiriuc, in what was billed as the inaugural full performance on a newly donated C. Bechstein piano. Framed explicitly as an act of Bulgarian-Romanian friendship, the program mixed classical repertoire (Vivaldi, Schubert, Brahms) with popular songs and traditional pieces from both countries, presenting a family cross-border musical partnership as a small-scale model of cultural connection.

Alexandru Draghici: There is a distance between Bulgarians and Romanians, but for centuries our cultures were closely linked

Vladimir Mitev, 5 February 2026

Romanian philologist and folk musician Alexandru Drăghici, from Pitești in Wallachia, discusses two years of self-directed study of the Bulgarian language and folk music, and his work as a musician with the comedy troupe Divertis. His central claim is that Romanian and Bulgarian accordion technique and rural musical traditions share deep common roots — possibly traceable to bagpipe playing — obscured by twentieth-century political estrangement, and he describes ambitions for a large-scale Wallachian-Bulgarian folk fusion project in the spirit of Goran Bregović.

Ohara Donovetsky: Is it possible to live in the sacred, covered by the profane?

Vladimir Mitev, 18 October 2025

The article covers Romanian writer Ohara Donovetsky’s October 17, 2025 presentation of her novel ‘Casting for Fairies’ at the Ruse regional library during the ‘Written Treasures of the Lower Danube’ festival, moderated by Vladimir Mitev with translator Vanina Bozhikova. Donovetsky discusses her three female protagonists as embodiments of a ‘non-hegemonic’ femininity built on solidarity rather than competition, arguing that women’s strength often lies in quiet influence and transgenerational care rather than overt activism — a literary discussion staged explicitly as a Bulgarian-Romanian cultural exchange event.

Paula Erizanu in Ruse: You can be Moldovan, Romanian, Londoner and European at the same time…

Vladimir Mitev, 9 October 2024

Covering a Ruse Literature Festival event at the Canetti House on October 4, 2024, Vladimir Mitev reports on Moldovan-British writer Paula Erizanu’s presentation of her forthcoming book of oral histories from Moldovans of Jewish, Roma, Bulgarian and German backgrounds. Erizanu argues identities can be layered rather than exclusive (“Moldovan, Romanian, Londoner, European”), discusses Moldova’s October 2024 EU referendum amid Russian disinformation, and draws parallels — noted by Mitev and moderator input from Prof. Penka Anghelova — between Moldova’s and Bulgaria’s shared history as peripheral imperial territories, including Moldova’s 2014 banking scandal.

Romania participates in the 50th edition of Sofia International Book Fair with prominent guests of Romanian and Bulgarian literature

Vladimir Mitev, 7 December 2023

The article covers Romania’s presence at the 50th Sofia International Book Fair (December 5-10, National Palace of Culture), where novelists Ohara Donovetsky, Flavius Ardelean-Bachmann, and Bogdan-Alexandru Stănescu presented their work, with translators Lora Nenkovska and Vanina Bojikova facilitating. The highlight was a public dialogue pairing Stănescu with International Booker Prize winner Georgi Gospodinov, alongside the Bulgarian-language launch of Stănescu’s ‘The Childhood of Kaspar Hauser’ and a panel devoted to the idea of a shared ‘Romanian-Bulgarian cultural space.’

Andy Raychev, The River of Blues: Romanian audience appreciates blues music

Vladimir Mitev, 13 January 2023

In this interview, Andy Raychev, frontman of the Bulgarian blues band The River of Blues (named for the Mississippi as the genre’s birthplace), contrasts Romania’s younger, broader blues audience with Bulgaria’s older, narrower one, crediting Romania’s more professional promotion and possible state support for putting its blues scene on a “world stage” level alongside acts like Popa Chubby and Beth Hart at the 2022 Open Air Blues Festival in Brezoi. He recounts the band’s breakthrough there since 2019 and an ensuing 2023 mini-tour of Bucharest, Craiova and Sibiu, alongside plans for a debut studio album including a track called “Shake It.” The article is a musician’s-eye account of Bulgarian-Romanian cultural exchange through a specific music scene.

Petya Ilieva: Art is the surest way for “soft power” in diplomacy

Vladimir Mitev, 5 November 2022

Bulgarian visual artist Petya Ilieva discusses her Art4Diplomacy project, which decorates Sofia bus stops with photographs of foreign landmarks to build cultural familiarity; in August-September 2022 two stops (on Tsarigradsko Shose and near Sofia University on Shipka Street) displayed images of Bucharest’s Military Club and the Romanian Athenaeum concert hall, the latter chosen partly because Bulgarian benefactors the Georgiev brothers helped fund both the Athenaeum and Sofia University’s original site. Ilieva, working with foreign embassies for funding and materials, frames such free public installations as the eighth in a series and describes art as diplomacy’s only genuinely positive, non-confrontational tool. The article documents a concrete public-art initiative rather than a personal travel account.

Paola Georgieva: There is a great desire among Bulgarian pupils and students to study Romanian

Vladimir Mitev, 29 November 2021

In this interview, Paola Georgieva — a graduate of Romanian philology from Sofia University who teaches Romanian at Sofia’s Mihai Eminescu High School and lectures in the university’s Romanian Philology Department — describes strong and growing interest among Bulgarian high-school and university students in studying Romanian language, culture and art. She illustrates the resulting cultural exchange through her own work translating Florin Șerban’s film ‘If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle’ for Bulgarian television and co-translating poet Vladimir Levchev’s ‘Love in the Square’ into Romanian with Eliza Macadan, naming fellow translators Vanina Bozhikova and Lora Nenkovska as part of a small active community. Her summary claim — that the two peoples are close geographically but ‘far apart in terms of mutual knowledge’ — frames language study as the practical remedy.

A Romanian film strikes with a diagnosis for ourselves – the Bulgarians

Vladimir Mitev, 5 May 2021

This review argues that Alexander Nanau’s Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Collective’ (2019), about the 2015 Colectiv nightclub fire in Bucharest that killed 64 people after a bribery-enabled license let a venue built for 80 hold 400, functions as a diagnostic mirror for Bulgarian society as much as Romanian. The author draws a direct parallel to Sofia’s 2004 Indigo club fire, which killed seven children through similarly negligent licensing, contrasting Romania’s mass protests and government resignation with Bulgaria’s response of token fines. The comparison is used to argue that Romanian investigative journalism showed a boldness that Bulgaria’s comparatively ‘timid and broken’ cultural and media class has failed to match.

Diaspora and Minority Identity

Does the Bulgarian language have a place in Banat?

Svetlana Karadjova, 24 June 2026

Svetlana Karadjova, the Bulgarian Ministry of Education’s newly posted lecturer at the West University of Timișoara, recounts the first academic year of the revived Bulgarian-language program serving the Banat Bulgarian diaspora, expanding from a struggling course to eleven evening students plus community discussion meetings in Dudeștii Vechi. She credits figures such as the late Dr. Grigor Grigorov, historian Constantin Calciov, mayor Gheorghi Nacov and Ambassador Radko Vlaykov with sustaining institutional support, and presents the program’s growth as concrete evidence that the community’s distinct Bulgarian dialect and Cyrillic literacy can still be transmitted to a new generation.

Svetlana Karadjova: My mission in Timișoara is to connect people from Banat and Bulgaria

Vladimir Mitev, 14 February 2026

Svetlana Karadjova, lecturer at West University of Timișoara and president of the Falmis Association of Bulgarians in Banat, describes a multi-front effort to raise the standing of the Banat Bulgarian community beyond folklore, combining university teaching (42 students in her first semester), participation in two Bulgarian Academy of Sciences research projects on Banat and Bessarabian Bulgarian identity, and leadership of the Falmis dance ensemble that preserves choreography from disappearing villages. She frames her work as connecting communities across Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria through scholarship, dance and revived local intellectual life such as the ‘PG 33’ circle in Dudeștii Vechi.

Marius Oanță: We can talk about a revival of Bulgarian identity in Romania

Vladimir Mitev, 30 November 2025

Romanian researcher Marius Oanță, a specialist on Bulgarian Catholic (Pavlichian) communities in Romania, traces the 17th-19th century migration of Bulgarian Catholics fleeing Ottoman-era persecution into settlements such as Cioplea (now part of Bucharest) and Popești-Leordeni. He argues that although the community’s original Pavlichian dialect has largely died out, a genuine ‘renaissance’ of Bulgarian identity is now visible among younger descendants who are reconnecting with ancestral villages through family memory, church life and social media, citing figures like the imprisoned Catholic prelate Iosif Gunciu as touchpoints of that heritage.

The Bulgarian Inn in Izvoarele – local gastronomic spot opens doors

Bianca Vasile, 22 November 2025

The piece announces the opening of the ‘Bulgarian Inn’ in Izvoarele, Teleorman County — described as Romania’s first Bulgarian ethnic gastronomic venue — housed in the former mansion of boyar Petre Iliescu, in a village with over two centuries of Bulgarian settlement. Coordinator Bianca Vasile, a doctoral researcher and long-time minority-affairs activist, presents the reservation-only inn, which serves inherited family recipes and displays traditional costumes and language, as a deliberate ‘bridge’ preserving local Bulgarian heritage for visitors and the community itself.

Lucia Costache: The book “The History of Bulgarians in Târgoviște” aims to affirm our identity as Bulgarians in Romania

Vladimir Mitev, 14 September 2025

An interview with Lucia Costache, co-author (with her husband Marian Costache and priest Ioan Ștefănescu) of a new book on the Bulgarian community of Târgoviște, whose ancestors migrated from Băleni starting in 1851 and today number over 2,000 people. Costache describes how, after the 1940 Treaty of Craiova, the community declared itself Serbian to avoid forced repatriation—a survival tactic that let them keep their land but erased their official minority status, so that locals still mistakenly call them ‘Serbs’ today. Her central claim is that the book is a deliberate act of identity recovery: she insists ‘I don’t have a drop of Romanian blood, my blood is Bulgarian,’ even while affirming Romanian citizenship.

Radko Vlaykov: Bulgaria has a worthy place in Romania’s future intentions

Vladimir Mitev, 3 May 2023

In this interview, Radko Vlaykov, Bulgaria’s ambassador to Romania since February 2022, describes a bilateral ‘rediscovery’ formalized by presidents Rumen Radev and Klaus Iohannis signing a strategic-partnership declaration on March 15, 2023, and cites over €8 billion in annual trade alongside pending infrastructure agreements for a new Ruse-Giurgiu railway bridge and a Danube ferry link. He also notes joint efforts toward Schengen accession despite more than a decade of political delay, and points to roughly 6,000 people declaring Bulgarian ethnicity in Romania’s last census as evidence of an active, if small, minority community.

Social profile and attitudes of Bulgarian voters in Romania

Vladimir Mitev, 5 October 2022

In an interview with Radio Vidin’s Iordanka Gherasimova, journalist Vladimir Mitev, who monitored the October 2, 2022 Bulgarian parliamentary elections at the sole Bucharest polling station, profiles the roughly 200 Bulgarians in Romania who typically cast ballots there. He describes a middle-class, working-age electorate — including a PhD student in optoelectronics and a veterinarian — drawn from both short-term labor migrants and long-term residents, who value governmental stability and look to Romania’s institutional life as a benchmark for Bulgaria. He also notes a logistical detail illustrating Bulgaria’s liberal external voting rules: Lufthansa passengers diverted to Bucharest by bad weather were able to vote on the spot.

What did Bulgarians in Romania vote for?

Vladimir Mitev, 4 October 2022

Reporting for Bulgarian National Radio and interviewed by Radio Varna’s Valeri Velikov, correspondent Vladimir Mitev examines why 235 Bulgarians in Romania voted in the October 2022 parliamentary election, including some who drove 450-500 km from Constanța despite only one official request for a polling arrangement there. Voters he quotes — among them a PhD researcher in cultural heritage and a veterinarian — frame their ballot explicitly as a wish to import Romanian-style rule of law, anti-corruption practice and civic discipline into Bulgaria. The piece presents the diaspora as an informal channel through which comparative political expectations flow back into Bulgarian public opinion.

Cross-Border Twin-City Civic Cooperation

Miha Kosovel: The cross-border city identity makes everyone involved a person with larger horizons and richer experience

Vladimir Mitev, 21 June 2025

Slovenian cultural producer Miha Kosovel spoke at the Play Giurgiu festival (June 6, 2025) about how Nova Gorica and the Italian town of Gorizia—divided by a Cold War border yet jointly named European Capital of Culture 2025—rebuilt a shared cross-border identity through projects like the ‘Confessionary of Smugglers’ oral-history initiative and the Carinarnica cultural hub built into a former checkpoint. His argument, offered explicitly as a model for the Ruse-Giurgiu twin-city relationship, is that a European Capital of Culture designation forces a city to confront its institutional weaknesses rather than just showcase strengths, and that living with a border partner broadens residents’ horizons rather than narrowing them.

Cultural activists from Ruse and Giurgiu simultaneously organized a mini-film festival in both cities

Vladimir Mitev, 16 September 2024

Mitev describes a grassroots twin event on September 14, 2024: Romanian curator Mihai Mitrică (of the Play Giurgiu/Animest festival) supplied European animated short films that were screened simultaneously to about 40 people at Bloc 14 cultural center in Ruse (hosted by Assen Nikolov and Evgenia Yavasheva) while Mitrică screened “The Big Bad Wolf” in Giurgiu. The piece frames this citizen-led, cross-Danube cultural exchange — facilitated in part by the Bridge of Friendship blog itself — as evidence that ordinary people, not just officials, are deepening European integration between the twin cities seventeen years after EU accession.

Citizens of Ruse and Giurgiu need to establish more people-to-people relations

Vladimir Mitev, 20 January 2024

In an interview with French-Romanian outlet Regard’s Benjamin Ribout, Vladimir Mitev discusses the twin Danube cities of Ruse (Bulgaria) and Giurgiu (Romania), just 15 minutes apart by car. He recounts how Ruse residents mobilized against a planned toxic-waste incinerator in Giurgiu, driven by lingering trauma from the Soviet-era Verachim chemical plant, whose chlorine emissions in the 1980s caused respiratory illness and depopulation on the Bulgarian side. Mitev argues that cross-border civic ties remain underdeveloped compared to administrative cooperation (citing the Danubius Euroregion and cultural exchanges), observing that ‘it is only when there are problems that solidarity manifests itself,’ and presents his blog as an effort to build a shared, dynamic cross-border identity.

How could a Romanian e-consultation platform expand to the Bulgarian city of Ruse?

Vladimir Mitev, 4 October 2023

The article reports on discussions between the Romanian NGO Pro Democratia — represented by Viviana Anghel and project manager Iuliana Iliescu — Giurgiu’s deputy mayor Ionel Muscalu, and Active Citizens Giurgiu coordinator Ioana Ciocoiu about extending Pro Democratia’s e-consultation platform across the Danube so residents of Ruse could weigh in alongside Giurgiu on shared issues, including the contested incinerator project. Mitev, speaking from Ruse, stresses that any expansion must stay strictly non-partisan given Bulgaria’s polarized politics and the sensitivity of election periods.

Locally, Giurgiu and Ruse reject the incinerator project in the Romanian town

Vladimir Mitev, 13 September 2023

The article details opposition to a proposed medical and animal-waste incinerator on the site of a former chemical plant in Giurgiu, Romania: protest organizer Ciprian Alexandru disputes the lack of transparent emissions data, county council president Dumitru Beianu calls the project’s benefits ‘insignificant compared to possible problems,’ and Giurgiu’s local council has voted to require greater distance from residential areas. Across the Danube, Ruse’s initiative committee collected 1,700-1,800 signatures against the plant, citing the twin cities’ shared memory of 1980s chemical pollution that damaged Ruse’s air quality and population.

Focus: Euroregion Giurgiu-Ruse

Vladimir Mitev, 2 February 2023

The article reports on a January 15, 2023 civil-society meeting at the Austrian Library in Ruse, bringing together figures such as Prof. Penka Angelova (International Society “Elias Canetti”), cultural manager Viktor Kirilov, journalist Vladimir Mitev, anthropologist Alexandru-Grig Vulpe (TRANZIT2030.EU), and members of the Active Citizens Giurgiu Initiative, Ioana Ciocoiu and Adrian Nedelea. Participants discussed the Giurgiu-Ruse Euroregion’s status as one of the EU’s most underdeveloped and civically passive territories, and agreed on three cooperation priorities: environmental/heritage protection, civic and cultural education, and improved cross-border infrastructure access. It functions as a status report on organized cross-border civic cooperation efforts in the twin-city region.

Chirnogi and Tutrakan built a human bridge over the Danube

Vladimir Mitev, 27 January 2023

The article covers the January 26, 2023 launch, in Chirnogi (Călărași county, Romania), of a bilingual book by Relu Cotoban titled “Chirnogi-Tutrakan: Bridge over the Danube,” which chronicles twelve years of twinning activities between the two Danube towns through their history, monuments, schools and institutions. Around 140 people attended, including three Bulgarian delegations (city hall, history museum, and village representatives) and Orthodox clergy from both countries, and the book closes with the story of a mixed Romanian-Bulgarian family whose child was baptized in Chirnogi’s St. Nicholas Church as a symbol of the towns’ human ties. The piece presents the publication as a concrete artifact of sustained twin-town civic cooperation rather than a one-off event.

Danube Days Festival 2022 in Giurgiu: Discover the historical district “Smârda”

Vladimir Mitev, 29 June 2022

This event notice covers the Danube Days Festival held July 8-10, 2022 in Giurgiu, Romania, centered on the historic Smârda neighborhood, including a dedicated English-language walking tour on July 10 past the site of a former sugar factory and a hut converted into a community center. The festival was organized by the Urban Transition Association with Ion Mincu University of Architecture and the Giurgiu municipality under the EU-funded #DANUrB+ urban-regeneration program, and combined a photo exhibition, storytelling sessions, a mapping walk, film screenings and an antique fair. The organizers explicitly invited residents of Ruse, Bulgaria to cross the river for the event, framing it as a twin-city heritage occasion rather than a purely local one.

Personal Encounters & Travel

Dr. Gheorghiță Ciocioi: I dreamed of Sofia, not Paris

Vladimir Mitev, 21 April 2024

In an interview with Priest Kiril Sinev, Romanian ethnologist and translator Gheorghiță Ciocioi traces his lifelong attachment to Bulgaria, which began as a boy listening to Bulgarian radio and grew into doctoral research on the shared Balkan ballad of the ‘confined bride’ (human sacrifice built into medieval structures) among Romanians and Bulgarians. He describes translating over 200 articles on Bulgarian churches, monasteries and saints (including St. John of Rila and Archimandrite Seraphim Alexiev) for Romanian readers through the Sophia Publishing House, framing Bulgarian Orthodoxy as having ‘resisted heroically’ under Ottoman and communist rule. His central, quotable claim is that unlike many Romanian intellectuals oriented toward Paris and the West, he was drawn instead to Sofia and the Balkans.

Coffee with rose ice cream – a Romanian-Bulgarian dialogue

Ana Tatu, 22 August 2023

In this conversational essay, Romanian writer Ana Tatu of Giurgiu and Bulgarian journalist Vladimir Mitev of Ruse reflect on how their two Danube cities can ‘almost wave’ at each other yet remain largely unknown to one another, contrasting Mitev’s deliberate study of Romanian language and his habit of attending Bucharest theatre with Tatu’s more passive childhood exposure to Bulgarian television. They also range across shared concerns — Tatu praising the independent Romanian outlet Recorder amid a broader decline in press standards, and both discussing Bulgaria’s 2023 protests against domestic violence — as personal points of connection between the two cultures.

It is lovely, when I speak to a Bulgarian in Bulgarian language, and he answers in Romanian language

Vladimir Mitev, 13 May 2020

The article interviews Andrei-Ionel Bergheş, a Romanian geographer and former state meteorologist who since 2015 has run a tourism venture, ‘Geographical Archive’, organizing trips into Bulgaria. Bergheş describes learning Bulgarian during a first visit to Silistra and describes the personal pleasure of bilingual conversations where each side answers in their own tongue, while also noting an asymmetry in cross-border tourism services — Bulgarian restaurants often employ Romanian-speaking staff to court Romanian visitors, but the reverse is rare in Romania.

Mihai Bătrânu: I want to see Bulgaria one day from the Musala peak, at the height of 2925 metres

Vladimir Mitev, 3 May 2020

Mihai Bătrânu, a Romanian IT specialist, describes how a childhood spent watching uncensored Bulgarian television during the 1980s left him with a dormant familiarity with Cyrillic and Bulgarian vocabulary, rekindled during a 2012 trip to Bansko; he subsequently founded the blog ‘Bulgarikon’ in 2013 to teach fellow Romanians Bulgarian grammar, recipes and culture, reporting that it even helped a 72-year-old reader learn the language. He closes by voicing a personal wish to one day view Bulgaria from the Musala peak, Bulgaria’s highest point.