Ways to boost employment in times of an economic crisis and the challenges ahead will be on top of the agenda of a discussion between state officials and NGO representatives, initiated by Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov.

This is the third forum dedicated to the preparation of a national strategy "Bulgaria 2020" following the meetings in Plovdiv and Blagoevgrad, which discussed issues concerning the health care and education systems.

The discussion will be led by Margarita Atanasova, advisor to the president in the filed of social policy.

Eco-innovation, digital developments and new skills are the drivers for future growth in Europe and the focus of the Europe 2020 Strategy. Formally adopted by the European Council on 17 June 2010, the plan for the coming decade is to get back to basics

The Europe 2020 Strategy reaffirms the goal of boosting research and development (R&D) spending in Europe from 1.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 3%. Another goal is to reach a 75% employment rate for men and women, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.

Bulgaria’s unemployment rate in June 2010 was 9.26%, a slight reduction from the 9.53% in May, official data shows.

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