Bulgarians Join Balkan Protest Against Soaring Food Prices
Bulgaria has joined Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro in organizing protests against rising food prices
,,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.
Bulgaria's Minister of Defense Todor Tagarev admitted the possibility that an explosive device might have been planted on board the crashed plane in which Yevgeny Prigozhin was traveling
The European Commission has announced that it is preparing criminal proceedings against Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, and Portugal for incorrect application of the rules on the exchange of data on criminal records and the establishment of the relevant
The European Commission has started an evaluation of the Plan for Reconstruction and Development of Bulgaria, said the spokesman of the European Commission Eric Mamer. The document was submitted to the Commission on 15 October.
58% of Bulgarians do not support the introduction of the euro as the official currency in the country. This shows a study prepared by Trend agency specifically for the financial forum NEXT DIFI 2021, organized by b2b Media for the fifth year. The data dur
Too late Bulgaria began to explain its own position towards North Macedonia, as it should have been clear to our European partners some time ago.
An SPD-led government in Germany has significant potential to sharpen international attention to the problems of corruption in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria's Perperikon: A European Counterpart to Peru's Machu Picchu
Bulgarians Among EU's Least Frequent Vacationers, Struggling with Affordability