The new initiative of the Bulgarian School of Politics and the European Commission Representation in Bulgaria – “European Debates” – was launched on 4 February with a lecture of Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.

The goal of the initiative is to give a floor to young Bulgarian political and civil leaders, to debate the future of Europe and to provoke a broad public discussion on key topics for Bulgaria and the European Union, as well as to initiate development and application of new policies.

During her presentation “Into a changing world”, Kristalina Georgieva focused on the prevention of crises and disasters and expressed her hopes that the European countries would make more efforts in this field. The questions to the Commissioner were related to the world hotspots, operation of the European Commission, cooperation with NATO and Bulgaria. “Our main weakness as Bulgarians is that we tend to focus on small talks rather than on topics which push us ahead. Our children become less literate and this is a problem on which we all should think about”, highlighted Kristalina Georgieva during the discussion. According to her, it is very important for Bulgaria to set its priorities for development and to choose a growth model that unifies people.

The second meeting in the frame of the “European Debates” will take place on 9 March 2011. The guest-speaker at the meeting will be Tomislav Donchev, Minister in charge of EU funds management, who will give a lecture on the topic “Formation of innovative policies with EU funds”. Participants into the discussion will be current participants and Bulgarian School of Politics Alumni, as well as professors and students from different universities, representatives of NGOs and leading experts.

For more information and registration, please consult the website of the Bulgarian School of Politics.