Bulgarian Vice President: Membership in the EU Does Not Mean that Someone Else Has to Make the Decisions For Us

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | March 26, 2019, Tuesday // 15:05
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Vice President: Membership in the EU Does Not Mean that Someone Else Has to Make the Decisions For Us Iliana Yotova - Facebook profile

,,Membership in the EU does not mean that someone else has to make the decisions instead of us, that we have to wait for set parameters, directives and regulations already voted, and let us only have to translate them into Bulgarian language and put them in our legislation.''
        This was said by Vice President Iliyana Yotova, who participated in the discussion "Bulgaria 2019 - New Horizons: Doubts, Hopes, Perspectives". The forum, where young experts presented their visions for the country's development, is organized by the Institute for Social Integration and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

      According to Yotova, there is no discussion about how Bulgaria will develop in the next 20 or 50 years.

      She quotes data suggesting that 45% of young people in Bulgaria have their fears mainly from the lack of perspective and noted that these are half of the young people in the country who are potentially able to look for a job outside Bulgaria.

     We are among the fastest growing nations - almost five per cent of the settlements in Bulgaria are without a single resident, and those with up to 20 people are already 13 per cent, said Yotova and added that in these trends after 10 years more than half of Bulgaria will be the so-called demographic desert. If until recently the poorest region in the EU was the Northwest and we did nothing to improve the situation there, today the North-East Bulgaria looks the same, says the vice president.

According to her, Bulgaria has missed in the previous financial period a very serious opportunity for separating specific targeted European funds and programs for the development of the more underdeveloped regions.

   The forecast is that by 2030, 42 percent of the country's population will live in six cities - Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Russe and Stara Zagora, Yotova commented, adding that the country has a very serious territorial disproportion. There is no specialized program for efforts to develop declining areas in the country, she said.

   Iotova noted that there are two schools in Bulgaria on the subject of demography - one demographic crisis can be mastered by social measures and, on the other hand, one must develop a smart economy that will make the young people stay in Bulgaria and to give them a perspective.

   According to Yotova, one of the most important priorities the country has to play is high tech, as well as tourism, agriculture, small and medium-sized businesses.

   The Vice President warned that we have the enormous "chance" to make the entire European election campaign again as a country, bent on its national problems and internal policy, apart from the big talk about the changes in Europe.

,,There is no way to avoid the national topic during the European election campaign, but let's try to look at how domestic problems can be solved through European priorities and vice versa'', she said. 

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Bulgaria in EU » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: Iliana Yotova, chance, europe, demographic desert, tourism, Bulgaria, priorities

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria